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From the Series of -A 
Canterbury Classics? 



Che Canterbury Classics 

A Series of Supplementary Readers 
edited under the general supervision of 

KATHARINE LEE BATES 

Professor of English Literature in 
Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass. 



The text of this edition of " The Water- 
Babies'" agrees with the standard text 
found in the author's edition, published 
in Londo?i by Macmillan & Company. 




Charles Kingsley 



Zbc 

Slater-Babies 

3 fairy Cale for a Land-Baby 

By 

Charles Kingsley 



Edited by 

Sarah Willard Hiestand 

Editor of "The Beginner's Shakespeare" 




Rand ]Mc]^aUy <& Company 



Chicago 



New York 



London 









Copyright, IQ12, 
By Rand, McNally & Company 



€'C!.A314216 




THE series of Canterbury Classics aims to bear its share in 
acquainting school children with literature suited to 
their years. The culture of the imagination is no less 
important than the culture of memory and the reasoning 
power. That childhood is poor which has not for friends 
many of the goodly company represented by Hector, Achilles, 
Roland, Sigurd, The Cid, Don Quixote, Lancelot, Robin Hood, 
Percy, the Douglas, Gulliver, Puck, Rip Van Winkle, and 
Alice in Wonderland. College classrooms, where Dante and 
Spenser, Goethe and Coleridge are taught, speedily feel the 
difference between minds nourished, from babyhood up, on 
myths of Olympus and myths of Asgard, Hans Christian 
Andersen, old ballads, the "Pilgrim's Progress," the "Arabian 
Nights," the "Alhambra," and minds which are still 
strangers to fairyland and hero -land and all the dreamlands 
of the world's inheritance. Minds of this latter description 
come almost as barbarians to the study of poetry, deaf to 
its music and blind to its visions. They are in a foreign 
clime. In the larger college of life, no less, is felt the lack 
of an early initiation into literature. A practical people 
in a practical age, we need the grace of fable to balance our 
fact, the joy of poetry to leaven our prose. Something of 
the sort we are bound to have, and if familiarity in childhood 
with the classic tone has not armed us against the cheap, 
the flimsy, the corrupt in fiction, we fall easy victims to the 
trash of the hour. We become the sport of those mocking 
elves who give dry leaves for gold. 

This series must needs conform somewhat, in its choice of 
books, to the present demands of the schools. It will furnish 

[5] 



6 Introduction to the Series 

all good reading that is desired, but it aims also to help in 
arousing a desire for the more imaginative and inspiring 
legends of the Aryan race. In the case of every volume 
issued the text of the authoritative edition will be faithfully 
reproduced. 

These texts will be furnished with a modest amount of 
apparatus hidden away at the end of the book. It is the 
classic that is of importance. Often it may be best to 
disregard the notes. The series is addressed to children and 
aims to stimulate imagination, broaden sympathy, and 
awaken a love for literature. The editors strive to keep 
these aims in view and to avoid breaking the charm of the 
story by irrelevant and burdensome information. What is 
told is meant to be what a child would naturally like to 
know about the book that pleases him and the writer of the 
book. The biographical sketches emphasize, whenever it is 
appropriate, the childhood of the authors treated, and try 
throughout to give, by concrete illustration, impressions of 
personality and character. Special subjects sometimes call 
for special sketches, but, in general, the editorial work aims 
at quality rather than quantity. Knowledge which seems 
essential to intelligent reading, and which dictionary and 
teacher cannot reasonably be counted on to supply, has its 
place in notes, yet it is not forgotten that the notes exist 
for the sake of the literature, not the literature for the sake 
of the notes. Parents and librarians will appreciate the 
reading lists of books attractive to children, either by the 
author of the classic in hand or along the same lines of inter- 
est. Certain teachers, crowded and wearied with a variety 
of tasks, will welcome the section of suggestions. 

We have ventured to associate this series with the memory 
of the sweetest and most childlike spirit in English song, 
hoping that little pilgrims of to-day, journeying by April 
ways, may find as much cheer in gentle stories as did the 
poet of the Canterbury Tales. 

Katharine Lee Bates. 
Wellesley College. 



To- 

MY YOUNGEST SON 

GRENVILLE ARTHUR 

AND 
TO ALL OTHER GOOD LITTLE BOY8 



Come read me my riddle, each good little man; 
If you cannot read it, no grown-up folk can. 




EEgnZZE 



THETABLEOF 
CONTENTS 



*JbjdtmLjk I ■fkAfc 




Introduction 

Dedication 

A List of Illustrations .... 

The Water-Babies 



Chapter I 

II . 
III. 

IV . 

V . 

VI . 
VII 
VIII 

Moral . . 



PAGE 

5 

7 

ii 



i5 

57 
93 

133 

177 

215 

245 

287 

336 



A Biographical Sketch 341 

Notes 349 

A Reading List 3 Sl 

A Pronouncing Vocabulary 383 

Suggestions to Teachers 387 



{9} 




PAGE 

Charles Kingsley Frontispiece 

Tom on the Roof Facing 15 

"Tom . . . went to bed at seven" . . . . . . .20 

"Grimes rode the donkey in front, and Tom and the 

brushes walked behind" 23 

"Up jumped the little white lady in her bed, and, seeing 

Tom, screamed as shrill as any peacock" ... 38 

"Tom paddled up the park" 42 

"Before him lay . . . great plains, and farms, and villages, 

amid dark knots of trees" 

"She toddled off into the next room, and brought a cup of 
milk" 

"The salmon looked at him full in the face" .... 

"One day among the rocks he found a playfellow" 

"A very tremendous lady she was" 

"She boxed their ears, and thumped them over the head 
with rulers' ' 

"At last he met the King of the Herrings" 249 

"There he saw the last of the Gairfowl, standing on the 

Allalone stone , all alone" 252 



53 

65 
127 

i47 
i95 

204 



un 



12 



A List of Illustrations 



"The good molly s took Tom, and his dog up, and flew with 
them safe over the pack and the roaring ice giants' 

Mother Carey 

"They opened the box between them 1 .... 

"At last he came to the great sea-serpent himself' . 

l, The most wonderful bogy which he had ever seen" 



PAGE 

269 
274 
281 
289 
292 



I heard a thousand blended notes, 
While in a grove I sate reclined; 

In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts 
Bring sad thoughts to the mind. 

To her fair works did Nature link 

The human soul that through me ran; 

And much it grieved my heart to think, 
What man has made of man. 

Wordsworth. 




Tom on the Roof 



THE WATER-BABIES 

CHAPTER I 

ONCE upon a time there was a little chimney- 
sweep, and his name was Tom. That is a 
short name, and you have heard it before, 
so you will not have much trouble in remembering 
it. He lived in a great town in the North country, 5 
where there were plenty of chimneys to sweep, 
and plenty of money for Tom to earn and his 
master to spend. He could not read nor write, 
and did not care to do either; and he never 
washed himself, for there was no water up the 10 
court where he lived. He had never been taught 
to say his prayers. He never had heard of God,, or 
of Christ, except in words which you never have 
heard, and which it would have been well if he 
had never heard. He cried half his time, and 15 
laughed the other half. He cried when he had 
to climb the dark flues, rubbing his poor knees 
and elbows raw; and when the soot got into his 
eyes, which it did every day in the week; and 
when his master beat him, which he did every 20 
day in the week; and when he had not 
enough to eat, which happened every day in the 
week likewise. And he laughed the other half 
of the day, when he was tossing halfpennies 

Us] 



16 The Water-Babies 

25 with the other boys, or playing leap-frog over the 
posts, or bowling stones at the horses' legs as 
they trotted by, which last was excellent fun, 
when there was a wall at hand behind which 
to hide. As for chimney-sweeping, and being 

30 hungry, and being beaten, he took all that for 
the way of the world, like the rain and snow and 
thunder, and stood manfully with his back to it till 
it was over, as his old donkey did to a hailstorm ; 
and then shook his ears and was as jolly as ever ; 

35 and thought of the fine times coming, when he 
would be a man, and a master sweep, and sit in the 
public-house with a quart of beer and a long pipe, 
and play cards for silver money, and wear velvet- 
eens and ankle-jacks, and keep a white bull-dog 

40 with one gray ear, and carry her puppies in his 
pocket, just like a man. And he would have 
apprentices, one, two, three, if he could. How 
he would bully them, and knock them about, just 
as his master did to him; and make them carry 

« home the soot sacks, while he rode before them 
on his donkey, with a pipe in his mouth and a 
flower in his button-hole, like a king at the head 
of his army. Yes, there were good times coming ; 
and, when his master let him have a pull at the 

50 leavings of his beer, Tom was the jolliest boy in 
the whole town. 

One day a smart little groom rode into the 
court where Tom lived. Tom was just hiding 



The Water-Babies iy 

behind a wall, to heave half a brick at his horse's 
legs, as is the custom of that country when they 55 
welcome strangers; but the groom saw him, and 
halloed to him to know where Mr. Grimes, the 
chimney-sweep, lived. Now, Mr. Grimes was 
Tom's own master, and Tom was a good man of 
business, and always civil to customers, so he«o 
put the half -brick down quietly behind the wall, 
and proceeded to take orders. 

Mr. Grimes was to come up next morning to 
Sir John Harthover's, at the Place, for his old 
chimney-sweep was gone to prison, and thees 
chimneys wanted sweeping. And so he rode 
away, not giving Tom time to ask what the sweep 
had gone to prison for, which was a matter of 
interest to Tom, as he had been in prison once 
or twice himself. Moreover, the groom looked so 70 
very neat and clean, with his drab gaiters, drab 
breeches, drab jacket, snow-white tie with a smart 
pin in it, and clean round ruddy face, that Tom 
was offended and disgusted at his appearance, 
and considered him a stuck-up fellow, who gave 75 
himself airs because he wore smart clothes, and 
other people paid for them ; and went behind the 
wall to fetch the half -brick after all ; but did not, 
remembering that he had come in the way of 
business, and was, as it were, under a flag of so 
truce. 

His master was so delighted at his new customer 



18 The Water-Babies 

that he knocked Tom down out of hand, and 
drank more beer that night than he usually did 

ss in two, in order to be sure of getting up in time 
next morning; for the more a man's head aches 
when he wakes, the more glad he is to turn out, 
and have a breath of fresh air. And, when he did 
get up at four the next morning, he knocked 

90 Tom down again, in order to teach him (as young 
gentlemen used to be taught at public schools) 
that he must be an extra good boy that day, as 
they were going to a very great house, and might 
make a very good thing of it, if they could but 

»5 give satisfaction. 

And Tom thought so likewise, and, indeed, 
would have done and behaved his best, even 
without being knocked down. For, of all places 
upon earth, Harthover Place (which he had 

ioo never seen) was the most wonderful, and, of all 
men on earth, Sir John (whom he had . seen, 
having been sent to gaol by him twice) was the 
most awful. 

Harthover Place was really a grand place, even 

105 for the rich North country; with a house so large 
that in the frame-breaking riots, which Tom 
could just remember, the Duke of Wellington, 
and ten thousand soldiers to match, were easily 
housed therein; at least, so Tom believed; with 

no a park full of deer, which Tom believed to be 
monsters who were in the habit of eating 



The Water-Babies ig 

children; with miles of game-preserves, in which 
Mr. Grimes and the collier lads poached at times, 
on which occasions Tom saw pheasants, and 
wondered what they tasted like; with a noble us 
salmon-river, in which Mr. Grimes and his friends 
would have liked to poach; but then they must 
have got into cold water, and that they did not 
like at all. In short, Harthover was a grand 
place, and Sir John a grand old man, whom 120 
even Mr. Grimes respected ; for not only could he 
send Mr. Grimes to prison when he deserved it, 
as he did once or twice a week ; not only did he 
own all the land about for miles; not only was 
he a jolly, honest, sensible squire, as ever kept 125 
a pack of hounds, who would do what he thought 
right by his neighbours, as well as get what he 
thought right for himself; but, what was more, 
he weighed full fifteen stone, was nobody knew 
how many inches round the chest, and could 130 
have thrashed Mr. Grimes himself in fair fight, 
which very few folk round there could do, and 
which, my dear little boy, would not have been 
right for him to do, as a great many things are 
not which one both can do, and would like very 135 
much to do. So Mr. Grimes touched his hat to 
him when he rode through the town, and called 
him a "buirdly awd chap," and his young ladies 
"gradely lasses," which are two high compli- 
ments in the North country; and thought that"© 




"Torn. . .went to bed at seven 1 ' 

f20] 



The Water -Babies 21 

that made up for his poaching Sir John's pheas- 
ants ; whereby you may perceive that Mr. Grimes 
had not been to a properly-inspected Govern- 
ment National School. 

Now, I dare say, you never got up at three i« 
o'clock on a midsummer morning. Some people 
get up then because they want to catch salmon ; 
and some because they want to climb Alps; and 
a great many more because they must, like Tom. 
But, I assure you, that three o'clock on a mid-iso 
summer morning is the pleasantest time of all 
the twenty -four hours, and all the three hundred 
and sixty-five days; and why every one does 
not get up then, I never could tell, save that 
they are all determined to spoil their nerves and 155 
their complexions by doing all night what they 
might just as well do all day. But Tom, instead 
of going out to dinner at half -past eight at night, 
and to a ball at ten, and finishing off somewhere 
between twelve and four, went to bed at seven, iec 
when his master went to the public-house, and 
slept like a dead pig ; for which reason he was as 
piert as a game-cock (who always gets up early 
to wake the maids), and just ready to get up 
when the fine gentlemen and ladies were Justus 
ready to go to bed. 

So he and his master set out; Grimes rode 
the donkey in front, and Tom and the brushes 
walked behind ; out of the court, and up the street, 



22 The Water-Babies 

no past the closed window-shutters, and the winking 
weary policemen, and the roofs all shining gray 
in the gray dawn. 

They passed through the pitmen's village, all 
shut up and silent now, and through the turnpike ; 

175 and then they were out in the real country, and 
plodding along the black dusty road, between 
black slag walls, with no sound but the groaning 
and thumping of the pit-engine in the next 
field. But soon the road grew white, and the 

i8o walls likewise; and at the wall's foot grew long 
grass and gay flowers, all drenched with dew ; and 
instead of the groaning of the pit-engine, they 
heard the skylark saying his matins high up in 
the air, and the pit-bird warbling in the sedges, 

185 as he had warbled all night long. 

All else was silent. For old Mrs. Earth was 
still fast asleep; and, like many pretty people, 
she looked still prettier asleep than awake. The 
great elm-trees in the gold-green meadows were 

wo fast asleep above, and the cows fast asleep beneath 
them ; nay, the few clouds which were about were 
fast asleep likewise, and so tired that they had 
lain down on the earth to rest, in long white flakes 
and bars, among the stems of the elm-trees, and 

195 along the tops of the alders by the stream, waiting 
for the sun to bid them rise and go about their 
day's business in the clear blue overhead. 

On they went; and Tom looked, and looked, 



24 The Water -Babies 

for he never had been so far into the country 

200 before; and longed to get over a gate, and pick 
buttercups, and look for birds' nests in the hedge ; 
but Mr. Grimes was a man of business, and 
would not have heard of that. 

Soon they came up with a poor Irishwoman, 

205 trudging along with a bundle at her back. She 
had a gray shawl over her head, and a crimson 
madder petticoat; so you may be sure she came 
from Galway. She had neither shoes nor 
stockings, and limped along as if she were tired 

210 and footsore; but she was a very tall handsome 
woman, with bright gray eyes, and heavy black 
hair hanging about her cheeks. And she took 
Mr. Grimes' fancy so much, that when he came 
alongside he called out to her: 

215 "This is a hard road for a gradely foot like 
that. Will ye up, lass, and ride behind me?" 

But, perhaps, she did not admire Mr. Grimes' 
look and voice; for she answered quietly: 

"No, thank you: I'd sooner walk with your 

220 little lad here." 

"You may please yourself," growled Grimes, 
and went on smoking. 

So she walked beside Tom, and talked to him, 
and asked him where he lived, and what he knew, 

225 and all about himself, till Tom thought he had 
never met such a pleasant-spoken woman. And 
she asked him, at last, whether he said his prayers ; 



The Water-Babies 25 

and seemed sad when he told her that he knew 
no prayers to say. 

Then he asked her where she lived, and she 230 
said far away by the sea. And Tom asked her 
about the sea ; and she told him how it rolled and 
roared over the rocks in winter nights, and lay 
still in the bright summer days, for the children 
to bathe and play in it ; and many a story more, 235 
till Tom longed to go and see the sea, and bathe 
in it likewise. 

At last, at the bottom of a hill, they came to a 
spring; not such a sprang as you see here, which 
soaks up out of a white gravel in the bog, among 240 
red fly-catchers, and pink bottle-heath, and 
sweet white orchis ; nor such a one as you may see, 
too, here, which bubbles up under the warm sand- 
bank in the hollow lane, by the great tuft of 
lady ferns, and makes the sand dance reels at 245 
the bottom, day and night, all the year round; 
not such a spring as either of those; but a real 
North country limestone fountain, like one of 
those in Sicily or Greece, where the old heathen 
fancied the nymphs sat cooling themselves the 250 
hot summer's day, while the shepherds peeped 
at them from behind the bushes. Out of a low 
cave of rock, at the foot of a limestone crag, the 
great fountain rose, quelling, and bubbling, and 
gurgling, so clear that you could not tell where 255 
the water ended and the air began; and ran 



26 The Water-Babies 

away under the road, a stream large enough to 
turn a mill; among blue geranium, and golden 
globe-flower, and wild raspberry, and the bird- 

2co cherry with its tassels of snow. 

And there Grimes stopped, and looked; and 
Tom looked too. Tom was wondering whether 
anything lived in that dark cave, and came out 
at night to fly in the meadows. But Grimes was 

265 not wondering at all. Without a word, he got 

off his donkey, and clambered over the low road 

wall, and knelt down, and began dipping his ugly 

head into the spring — and very dirty he made it. 

Tom was picking the flowers as fast as he 

270 could. The Irishwoman helped him, and showed 
him how to tie them up ; and a very pretty nose- 
gay they had made between them. But when he 
saw Grimes actually wash, he stopped, quite aston- 
ished ; and when Grimes had finished, and began 

275 shaking his ears to dry them, he said: 

"Why, master, I never saw you do that before." 

"Nor will again, most likely. 'Twasn't for 

cleanliness I did it, but for coolness. I'd be 

ashamed to want washing every week or so, like 

280 any smutty collier lad." 

"I wish I might go and dip my head in," said 
poor little Tom. "It must be as good as putting 
it under the town-pump; and there is no beadle 
here to drive a chap away." 

2*5 "Thou come along," said Grimes; "what dost 



The Water-Babies 27 

want with washing thyself? Thou did not drink 
half a gallon of beer last night, like me." 

"Idon'tcareforyou," said naughty Tom, and ran 
down to the stream, and began washing his face. 

Grimes was very sulky, because the woman 290 
preferred Tom's company to his; so he dashed 
at him with horrid words, and tore him up from 
his knees, and began beating him. But Tom was 
accustomed to that, and got his head safe between 
Mr. Grimes' legs, and kicked his shins with all 295 

his might. . 

"Are you not ashamed of yourself, Thomas 
Grimes?" cried the Irishwoman over the wall. 

Grimes looked up, startled at her knowing his 
name; but all he answered was, "No, nor never 300 
was yet," and went on beating Tom. 

"True for you. If you ever had been ashamed 
of yourself, you would have gone over into Ven- 

dale long ago." 

"What do you know about Vendale?" shouted 305 
Grimes; but he left off beating Tom. 

"I know about Vendale, and about you, too. 
I know, for instance, what happened in Aldermire 
Copse, by night, two years ago come Martinmas." 

"You do?" shouted Grimes; and leavingsio 
Tom, he climbed up over the wall, and faced the 
woman. Tom thought he was going to strike 
her; but she looked him too full and fierce in 
the face for that. 



28 The Water-Babies 

315 "Yes; I was there," said the Irishwoman 
quietly. 

"You are no Irishwoman, by your speech," 
said Grimes, after many bad words. 

"Never mind who I am. I saw what I saw; 

320 and if you strike that boy again, I can tell what 
I know." 

Grimes seemed quite cowed, and got on his 
donkey without another word. 

"Stop!" said the Irishwoman. "I have one 

325 more word for you both; for you will both see 

me again before all is over. Those that wish 

to be clean, clean they will be; and those that 

wish to be foul, foul they will be. Remember." 

And she turned away, and through a gate into 

330 the meadow. Grimes stood still a moment, like 
a man who had been stunned. Then he rushed 
after her, shouting, "You come back." But 
when he got into the meadow, the woman "was 
not there. 

335 Had she hidden away? There was no place to 
hide in. But Grimes looked about, and Tom also, 
for he was as puzzled as Grimes himself at her 
disappearing so suddenly; but look where they 
would, she was not there. 

340 Grimes came back again, as silent as a post, 
for he was a little frightened; and, getting on 
his donkey, filled a fresh pipe, and smoked away, 
leaving Tom in peace. 



The Water-Babies 2Q 

And now they had gone three miles and more, 
and came to Sir John's lodge-gates. a« 

Very grand lodges they were, with very grand 
iron gates and stone gate-posts, and on the top 
of each a most dreadful bogy, all teeth, horns, 
and tail, which was the crest which Sir John's 
ancestors wore in the Wars of the Roses ; and very 350 
prudent men they were to wear it, for all their 
enemies must have run for their lives at the 
very first sight of them. 

Grimes rang at the gate, and out came a keeper 
on the spot, and opened. 355 

"I was told to expect thee," he said. "Now 
thou'lt be so good as to keep to the main avenue, 
and not let me find a hare or a rabbit on thee 
when thou comest back. I shall look sharp 
for one, I tell thee." 3eo 

"Not if it's in the bottom of the soot-bag," 
quoth Grimes, and at that he laughed; and the 
keeper laughed and said: 

"If that's thy sort, I may as well walk up with 
thee to the hall." 355 

"I think thou best had. It's thy business to 
see after thy game, man, and not mine." 

So the keeper went with them; and, to Tom's 
surprise, he and Grimes chatted together all the 
way quite pleasantly. He did not know that a 370 
keeper is only a poacher turned outside in, and a 
poacher a keeper turned inside out. 



jo The Water-Babies 

They walked up a great lime avenue, a full 
mile long, and between their stems Tom peeped 
375 trembling at the horns of the sleeping deer, which 
stood up among the ferns. Tom had never seen 
such enormous trees, and as he looked up he 
fancied that the blue sky rested on their heads. 
But he was puzzled very much by a strange 
38o murmuring noise, which followed them all the 
way. So much puzzled, that at last he took 
courage to ask the keeper what it was. 

He spoke very civilly, and called him Sir, for 
he was horribly afraid of him, which pleased 
385 the keeper, and he told him that they were the 
bees about the lime flowers. 
"What are bees?" asked Tom. 
"What make honey." 
"What is honey?" asked Tom. 
390 "Thou hold thy noise," said Grimes. 

"Let the boy be," said the keeper. "He's a 
civil young chap now, and that's more than he'll 
be long if he bides with thee." 

Grimes laughed, for he took that for a com- 
395 pliment. 

"I wish I were a keeper," said Tom, "to live in 
such a beautiful place, and wear green velveteens, 
and have a real dog-whistle at my button, like 
you." 
<oo The keeper laughed; he was a kind-hearted 
fellow enough. 



The Water-Babies ji 

'Let well alone, lad, and ill too at times. Thy 
life's safer than mine at all events, eh, Mr. Grimes ?" 

And Grimes laughed again, and then the two 
men began talking quite low. Tom could hear, 405 
though, that it was about some poaching fight; 
and at last Grimes said surlily, ''Hast thou 
anything against me?" 

"Not now." 

"Then don't ask me any questions till thou^o 
hast, for I am a man of honour." 

And at that they both laughed again, and 
thought it a very good joke. 

And by this time they were come up to the 
great iron gates in front of the house; and Torrms 
stared through them at the rhododendrons and 
azaleas, which were all in flower ; and then at the 
house itself, and wondered how many chimneys 
there were in it, and how long ago it was built, 
and what was the man's name that built it, and 420 
whether he got much money for his job? 

These last were very difficult questions to 
answer. For Harthover had been built at 
ninety different times, and in nineteen different 
styles, and looked as if somebody had built a«5 
whole street of houses of every imaginable shape, 
and then stirred them together with a spoon. 

For the attics were Anglo-Saxon. 
The third floor Norman. 



32 The Water-Babies 

430 The second Cinque -cento. 
The first floor Elizabethan. 
The right wing Pure Doric. 
The centre Early English, with a huge portico 
copied from the Parthenon. 
435 The left wing pure Boeotian, which the country 
folk admired most of all, because it was just like the 
new barracks in the town, only three times as big. 
The grand staircase was copied from the Cata- 
combs at Rome. 
440 The back staircase from the Tajmahal at Agra. 
This was built by Sir John's great-great-great-uncle, 
who won, in Lord Clive's Indian Wars, plenty of 
money, plenty of wounds, and no more taste than 
his betters. 
4« The cellars were copied from the caves of Ele- 
phanta. 

The offices from the Pavilion at Brighton. 

And the rest from nothing in heaven, or earth, 
or under the earth. 

450 So that Harthover House was a great puzzle to 
antiquarians, and a thorough Naboth's vine- 
yard to critics, and architects, and all persons 
who like meddling with other men's business, 
and spending other men's money. So they were 

455 all setting upon poor Sir John, year after year, 
and trying to talk him into spending a hundred 
thousand pounds or so, in building, to please them 



The Water-Babies 33 

and not himself. But he always put them off, 
like a canny North-countryman as he was. One 
wanted him to build a Gothic house, but he said4e» 
he was no Goth; and another to build an Eliza- 
bethan, but he said he lived under good Queen 
Victoria, and not good Queen Bess; and another 
was bold enough to tell him that his house was 
ugly, but he said he lived inside it, and not out-^s 
side ; and another, that there was no unity in it, 
but he said that that was just why he liked the 
old place. For he liked to see how each Sir John, 
and Sir Hugh, and Sir Ralph, and Sir Randal, 
had left his mark upon the place, each after his 470 
own taste; and he had no more notion of dis- 
turbing his ancestors' work than of disturbing 
their graves. For now the house looked like a 
real live house, that had a history, and had 
grown and grown as the world grew; and that it 475 
was only an upstart fellow who did not know who 
his own grandfather was, who would change it 
for some spick and span new Gothic or Elizabethan 
thing, which looked as if it had been all spawned 
in a night, as mushrooms are. From which you^o 
may collect (if you have wit enough) that Sir 
John was a very sound-headed, sound-hearted 
squire, and just the man to keep the country side 
in order, and show good sport with his hounds. 

But Tom and his master did not go in through *& 
the great iron gates, as if they had been Dukes 



34 The Water-Babies 

or Bishops, but round the back way, and a very 
long way round it was; and into a little back- 
door, where the ash-boy let them in, yawning 

4m horribly; and then in a passage the housekeeper 
met them, in such a flowered chintz dressing- 
gown, that Tom mistook her for My Lady herself, 
and she gave Grimes solemn orders about "You 
will take care of this, and take care of that," 

«>5 as if he was going- up the chimneys, and not 
Tom. And Grimes listened, and said every 
now and then, under his voice, "You'll mind 
that, you little beggar?" and Tom did mind, all 
at least that he could. And then the housekeeper 

500 turned them into a grand room, all covered up 
in sheets of brown paper, and bade them begin, 
in a lofty and tremendous voice; and so after 
a whimper or two, and a kick from his master, 
into the grate Tom went, and up the chimney, 

505 while a housemaid stayed in the room to watch 
the furniture; to whom Mr. Grimes paid many 
playful and chivalrous compliments, but met 
with very slight encouragement in return. 

How many chimneys Tom swept I cannot say ; 

510 but he swept so many that he got quite tired, 
and puzzled too, for they were not like the town 
flues to which he was accustomed, but such as you 
would find — if you would only get up them and 
look, which perhaps you would not like to do — in 

515 old country-houses, large and crooked chimneys, 



The Water-Babies 35 

which had been altered again and again, till they 
ran one into another, anastomosing (as Professor 
Owen would say) considerably. So Tom fairly 
lost his way in them ; not that he cared much for 
that, though he was in pitchy darkness, for he was 520 
as much at home in a chimney as a mole is under- 
ground; but at last, coming down as he thought 
the right chimney, he came down the wrong one, 
and found himself standing on the hearthrug in 
a room the like of which he had never seen before. 525 

Tom had never seen the like. He had never 
been in gentlefolks' rooms but when the carpets 
were all up, and the curtains down, and the furni- 
ture huddled together under a cloth, and the pic- 
tures covered with aprons and dusters; and he 530 
had often enough wondered what the rooms were 
like when they were all ready for the quality to 
sit in. And now he saw, and he thought the sight 
very pretty. 

The room was all dressed in white, — white 535 
window-curtains, white bed-curtains, white furni- 
ture, and white walls, with just a few lines of 
pink here and there. The carpet was all over 
gay little flowers; and the walls were hung with 
pictures in gilt frames, which amused Tom very 540 
much. There were pictures of ladies and gentle- 
men, and pictures of horses and dogs. The horses 
he liked; but the dogs he did not care for much, 
for there were no bull-dogs among them, not 



36 The Water-Babies 

545 even a terrier. But the two pictures which took 
his fancy most were, one a man in long garments, 
with little children and their mothers round him, 
who was laying his hand upon the children's 
heads. That was a very pretty picture, Tom 

550 thought, to hang in a lady's room. For he could 
see that it was a lady's room by the dresses 
which lay about. 

The other picture was that of a man nailed to a 
cross, which surprised Tom much. He fancied 

555 that he had seen something like it in a shop- 
window. But why was it there? "Poor man," 
thought Tom, "and he looks so kind and quiet. 
But why should the lady have such a sad picture 
as that in her room? Perhaps it was some 

560 kinsman of hers, who had been murdered by the 

savages in foreign parts, and she kept it there 

for a remembrance." And Tom felt sad, and 

awed, and turned to look at something else. 

The next thing he saw, and that too puzzled 

565 him, was a washing-stand, with ewers and 
basins, and soap and brushes, and towels, and 
a large bath full of clean water — what a heap of 
things all for washing! "She must be a very 
dirty lady," thought Tom, "by my master's rule, 

570 to want as much scrubbing as all that. But 
she must be very cunning to put the dirt out of 
the way so well afterwards, for I don't see a speck 
about the room, not even on the very towels." 



The Water-Babies 37 

And then, looking toward the bed, he saw 
that dirty lady, and held his breath with aston-575 
ishment. 

Under the snow-white coverlet, upon the snow- 
white pillow, lay the most beautiful little girl 
that Tom had ever seen. Her cheeks were 
almost as white as the pillow, and her hair wassso 
like threads of gold spread all about over the 
bed. She might have been as old as Tom, or 
maybe a year or two older; but Tom did not 
think of that. He thought only of her delicate 
skin and golden hair, and wondered whether she 585 
was a real live person, or one of the wax dolls he 
had seen in the shops. But when he saw her 
breathe, he made up his mind that she was alive, 
and stood staring at her, as if she had been an 
angel out of heaven. 590 

No. She cannot be dirty. She never could 
have been dirty, thought Tom to himself. And 
then he thought, "And are all people like that 
when they are washed?" And he looked at his 
own wrist, and tried to rub the soot off, and 595 
wondered whether it ever would come off. "Cer- 
tainly I should look much prettier then, if I 
grew at all like her." 

And looking round, he suddenly saw, standing 
close to him, a little ugly, black, ragged figure, eoo 
with bleared eyes and grinning white teeth. He 
turned on it angrily. What did such a little black 



The Water-Babies jq 

ape want in that sweet young lady's room? And 
behold, it was himself, reflected in a great mirror, 
the like of which Tom had never seen before. eos 

And Tom, for the first time in his life, found 
out that he was dirty ; and b>urst into tears with 
shame and anger; and turned to sneak up the 
chimney again and hide; and upset the fender 
and threw the fireirons down, with a noise as ofcio 
ten thousand tin kettles tied to ten thousand 
mad dogs' tails. 

Up jumped the little white lady in her bed, 
and, seeing Tom, screamed as shrill as any pea- 
cock. In rushed a stout old nurse from the next 015 
room, and seeing Tom likewise, made up her mind 
that he had come to rob, plunder, destroy, and 
burn; and dashed at him, as he lay over the 
fender, so fast that she caught him by the jacket. 

But she did not hold him. Tom had been in a 620 
policeman's hands many a time, and out of them 
too, what is more; and he would have been 
ashamed to face his friends for ever if he had been 
stupid enough to be caught by an old woman ; so 
he doubled under the good lady's arm, across 625 
the room, and out of the window in a moment. 

He did not need to drop out, though he would 
have done so bravely enough. Nor even to let 
himself down a spout, which would have been 
an old game to him ; for once he got up by a spout 630 
to the church roof, he said to take jackdaws' eggs, 



40 The Water-Babies 

but the policeman said to steal lead; and, when 
he was seen on high, sat there till the sun got too 
hot, and came down by another spout, leaving 

635 the policemen to go back to the stationhouse and 
eat their dinners. 

But all under the window spread a tree, with 
great leaves and sweet white flowers, almost as 
big as his head. It was magnolia, I suppose; 

640 but Tom knew nothing about that, and cared 
less; for down the tree he went, like a cat, and 
across the garden lawn, and over the iron railings, 
and up the park towards the wood, leaving the 
old nurse to scream murder and fire at the window. 

645 The under gardener, mowing, saw Tom, and 
threw down his scythe; caught his leg in it, and 
cut his shin open, whereby he kept his bed for a 
week ; but in his hurry he never knew it, and gave 
chase to poor Tom. The dairymaid heard the 

650 noise, got the churn between her knees, and tum- 
bled over it, spilling all the cream; and yet she 
jumped up, and gave chase to Tom. A groom 
cleaning Sir John's hack at the stables let him 
go loose, whereby he kicked himself lame in five 

655 minutes; but he ran out and gave chase to Tom. 
Grimes upset the soot-sack in the new-gravelled 
yard, and spoilt it all utterly ; but he ran out and 
gave chase to Tom. The old steward opened the 
park-gate in such a hurry, that he hung up his 

66o pony's chin upon the spikes, and, for aught I know, 



The Water-Babies 4 1 

it hangs there still ; but he jumped off, and gave 
chase to Tom. The ploughman left his horses 
at the headland, and one jumped over the fence, 
and pulled the other into the ditch, plough and 
all; but he ran on, and gave chase to Tom. Theees 
keeper, who was taking a stoat out of a trap, let 
the stoat go, and caught his own finger; but he 
jumped up, and ran after Tom; and considering 
what he said, and how he looked, I should have 
been sorry for Tom if he had caught him. Sire?o 
John looked out of his study window (for he was 
an early old gentleman) and up at the nurse, and 
a marten dropped mud in his eye, so that he had 
at last to send for the doctor; and yet he ran out, 
and gave chase to Tom. The Irishwoman, too,e?5 
was walking up to the house to beg,— she must 
have got round by some byway, — but she threw 
away her bundle, and gave chase to Tom likewise. 
Only My Lady did not give chase ; for when she 
had put her head out of the window, her night- eso 
wig fell into the garden, and she had to ring up her 
lady's-maid, and send her down for it privately, 
which quite put her out of the running, so that 
she came in nowhere, and is consequently not 
placed. 

In a word, never was there heard at Hall Place 
— not even when the fox was killed in the conser- 
vatory, among acres of broken glass, and tons of 
smashed flower-pots— such a noise, row, hubbub, 




Poor Tom paddled up the park" 

[42l 



The Water-Babies 43 

babel, shindy, hullabaloo, stramash, charivari, and.690 
total contempt of dignity, repose, and order, as 
that day, when Grimes, gardener, the groom, the 
dairymaid, Sir John, the steward, the plough- 
man, the keeper, and the Irishwoman, all ran up 
the park, shouting "Stop thief," in the belief 695 
that Tom had at least a thousand pounds' worth 
of jewels in his empty pockets ; and the very 
magpies and jays followed Tom up, screaking 
and screaming, as if he were a hunted fox, 
beginning to droop his brush. 700 

And all the while poor Tom paddled up the 
park with his little bare feet, like a small black 
gorilla fleeing to the forest. Alas for him! there 
was no big father gorilla therein to take his 
part — to scratch out the gardener's inside with 705 
one paw, toss the dairymaid into a tree with 
another, and wrench off Sir John's head with a 
third, while he cracked the keeper's skull with 
his teeth as easily as if it had been a cocoa-nut 
or a paving-stone. 710 

However, Tom did not remember ever having 
had a father; so he did not look for one, and 
expected to have to take care of himself; while 
as for running, he could keep up for a couple of 
miles with any stagecoach, if there was the 715 
chance of a copper or a cigar-end, and turn coach- 
wheels on his hands and feet ten times follow- 
ing, which is more than you can do. Wherefore 



44 The Water -Babies 

his pursuers found it very difficult to catch him ; 

720 and we will hope that they did not catch him 
at all. 

Tom, of course, made for the woods. He had 
never been in a wood in his life; but he was 
sharp enough to know that he might hide in a 

725 bush, or swarm up a tree, and, altogether, had 
more chance there than in the open. If he had 
not known that, he would have been foolisher 
than a mouse or a minnow. 

But when he got into the wood, he found it 

730 a very different sort of place from what he had 
fancied. He pushed into a thick cover of rhodo- 
dendrons, and found himself at once caught in 
a trap. The boughs laid hold of his legs and 
arms, poked him in his face and his stomach, 

735 made him shut his eyes tight (though that was 
no great loss, for he could not see at best a 
yard before his nose) ; and when he got through 
the rhododendrons, the hassock-grass and sedges 
tumbled him over, and cut his poor little fingers 

740 afterwards most spitefully; the birches birched 
him as soundly as if he had been a nobleman at 
Eton, and over the face too (which is not fair 
swishing, as all brave boys will agree) ; and the 
lawyers tripped him up, and tore his shins as if 

745 they had sharks' teeth — which lawyers are likely 
enough to have. 

"I must get out of this," thought Tom, "or I 



The Water-Babies 45 

shall stay here till somebody comes to help me — 
which is just what I don't want." 

But how to get out was the difficult matter. 750 
And indeed I don't think he would ever have got 
out at all, but have stayed there till the cock- 
robins covered him with leaves, if he had not 
suddenly run his head against a wall. 

Now running your head against a wall is not 755 
pleasant, especially if it is a loose wall/ with the 
stones all set on edge, and a sharp cornered one 
hits you between the eyes and makes you see all 
manner of beautiful stars. The stars are very 
beautiful, certainly; but unfortunately they go?co 
in the twenty-thousandth part of a split second, 
and the pain which comes after them does not. 
And so Tom hurt his head; but he was a brave 
boy, and did not mind that a penny. He guessed 
that over the wall the cover would end; and up 765 
it he went, and over like a squirrel. 

And there he was, out on the great grouse- 
moors, which the country folk called Harthover 
Fell — heather and bog and rock, stretching away 
and up, up to the very sky. 770 

Now, Tom was a cunning little fellow — as 
cunning as an old Exmoor stag. Why not? 
Though he was but ten years old, he had lived 
longer than most stags, and had more wits to 
start with into the bargain. 775 

He knew as well as a stag that if he backed he 



46 The Water-Babies 

might throw the hounds out. So the first thing 
he did when he was over the wall was to make 
the neatest double sharp to his right, and run 

780 along under the wall for nearly half a mile. 

Whereby Sir John, and the keeper, and the 
steward, and the gardener, and the ploughman, 
and the dairymaid, and all the hue-and-cry 
together, went on ahead half a mile in the very 

785 opposite direction, and inside the wall, leaving 
him a mile off on the outside; while Tom heard 
their shouts die away in the woods and chuckled 
to himself merrily. 

At last he came to a dip in the land, and went 

790 to the bottom of it, and then he turned 1 bravely 

away from the wall and up the moor ; for he 

knew that he had put a hill between him and his 

enemies, and could go on without their seeing him. 

But the Irishwoman, alone of them all, had 

795 seen which way Tom went. She had kept 
ahead of every one the whole time; and yet she 
neither walked nor ran. She went along quite 
smoothly and gracefully, while her feet twinkled 
past each other so fast that you could not see 

8oo which was foremost; till every one asked the 
other who the strange woman was ; and all agreed, 
for want of anything better to say, that she 
must be in league with Tom. 

But when she came to the plantation, they lost 

805 sight of her ; and they could do no less. For 



The Water-Babies 47 

she went quietly over the wall- after Tom, and 
followed him wherever he went. Sir John and 
the rest saw no more of her; and out of sight 
was out of mind. _ ' 

And now Tom was right away into the heather, «<> 
over just such a moor as those in which you have 
been bred, except that there were rocks and stones 
lyin* about everywhere, and that, instead of 
the moor growing flat as he went upwards, it grew 
more and more broken and hilly, but not so rough m 
but that little Tom could jog along well enough, 
and find time, too, to stare about at the strange 
place, which was like a new world to him. 

He saw great spiders there, with crowns and 
crosses marked on their backs, who sat in the » 
middle of their webs, and when they saw Tom 
coming, shook them so fast that they became 
invisible Then he saw lizards, brown and gray 
and green, and thought they were snakes, and 
would sting him; but they were as much fright-** 
ened as he, and shot away into the heath. And 
then under a rock, he saw a pretty sight— a great 
brown, sharp-nosed creature, with a white tag to 
her brush, and round her four or five smutty 
little cubs, the funniest fellows Tom ever saw.™ 
She lay on her back, rolling about, and stretching 
out her legs and head and tail in the bright sun- 
shine; and the cubs jumped over her, and ran 
round her, and nibbled her paws, and lugged 



48 The Water-Babies 

835 her about by the tail ; and she seemed to enjoy it 
mightily. But one selfish little fellow stole away 
from the rest to a dead crow close by, and dragged 
it off to hide it, though it was nearly as big as he 
was. Whereat all his little brothers set off after 

84o him in full cry, and saw Tom; and then all ran 
back, and up jumped Mrs. Vixen, and caught one 
up in her mouth, and the rest toddled after her, 
and into a dark crack in the rocks; and there 
was an end of the show. 

845 And next he had a fright ; for, as he scrambled 
up a sandy brow — whirr-poof-poof-cock-cock- 
kick — something went off in his face, with a most 
horrid noise. He thought the ground had 
blown up, and the end of the world come. 

850 And when he opened his eyes (for he shut them 
very tight) it was only an old cock-grouse, who 
had been washing himself in sand, like an Arab, 
for want of water; and who, when Tom had all 
but trodden on him, jumped up with a noise like 

855 the express train, leaving his wife and children 
to shift for themselves, like an old coward, and 
went off, screaming "Cur-ru-u-uck, cur-ru-u-uck — 
murder, thieves, fire — cur-u-uck-cock-kick — the 
end of the world is come — kick-kick-cock-kick." 

860 He was always fancying that the end of the world 
was come, when anything happened which was 
farther off than the end of his own nose. But 
the end of the world was not come, any more 



The Water-Babies 49 

than the twelfth of August was; though the 
old grouse-cock was quite certain of it. ses 

So the old grouse came back to his wife and 
family an hour afterwards, and said solemnly, 
"Cock-cock-kick; my dears, the end of the 
world is not quite come; but I assure you it is 
coming the day after to-morrow — cock." Butsvo 
his wife had heard that so often that she knew all 
about it, and a little more. And, besides, she was 
the mother of a family, and had seven little poults 
to wash and feed every day; and that made her 
very practical, and a little sharp-tempered; so 875 
all she answered was: "Kick-kick-kick — go and 
catch spiders, go and catch spiders — kick." 

So Tom went on and on, he hardly knew why ; 
but he liked the great wide strange place, and the 
cool fresh bracing air. But he went more andsao 
more slowly as he got higher up the hill ; for now 
the ground grew very bad indeed. Instead of 
soft turf and springy heather, he met great 
patches of flat limestone rock, just like ill-made 
pavements, with deep cracks between the stones sss 
and ledges, filled with ferns; so he had to hop 
from stone to stone, and now and then he slipped 
in between, and hurt his little bare toes, though 
they were tolerably tough ones; but still he 
would go on and up, he could not tell why. 890 

What would Tom have said if he had seen, 
walking over the moor behind him, the very 



50 The Water-Babies 

same Irishwoman who had taken his part upon 
the road ? But whether it was that he looked too 

895 little behind him, or whether it was that she kept 
out of sight behind the rocks and knolls, he never 
saw her, though she saw him. 

And now he began to get a little hungry, and 
very thirsty ; for he had run a long way, and the 

9oo sun had risen high in heaven, and the rock was 

as hot as an oven, and the air danced reels over it, 

as it does over a limekiln, till everything round 

seemed quivering and melting in the glare. 

But he could see nothing to eat anywhere, 

905 and still less to drink. 

The heath was full of bilberries and whim- 
berries; but they were only in flower yet, for it 
was June. And as for water, who can find that 
on the top of a limestone rock? Now and then 

910 he passed by a deep dark swallow-hole, going 
down into the earth, as if it was the chimney 
of some dwarf's house underground; and more 
than once, as he passed, he could hear water 
falling, trickling, tinkling, many many feet below. 

915 How he longed to get down to it, and cool his 
poor baked lips! But, brave little chimney- 
sweep as he was, he dared not climb down such 
chimneys as those. 

So he went on and on, till his head spun round 

920 with the heat, and he thought he heard church- 
bells ringing, a long way off. 



The Water -Babies 57 

"Ah!" he thought, "where there is a church 
there will be houses and people; and, perhaps, 
some one will give me a bit and a sup." So he 
set off again, to look for the church; for he was 925 
sure that he heard the bells quite plain. 

And in a minute more, when he looked round, he 
stopped again, and said, "Why, what a big place 
the world is!" 

And so it was; for, from the top of the moun-930 
tain he could see — what could he not see ? 

Behind him, far below, was Harthover, and the 
dark woods, and the shining salmon river; and 
on his left, far below, was the town, and the 
smoking chimneys of the collieries; and far, far 935 
away, the river widened to the shining sea; and 
little white specks, which were ships, lay on its 
bosom. Before him lay, spread out like a map, 
great plains, and farms, and villages, amid dark 
knots of trees. They all seemed at his very feet; 940 
but he had sense to see that they were long 
miles away. 

And to his right rose moor after moor, hill 
after hill, till they faded away, blue into blue sky. 
But between him and those moors, and really at 945 
his very feet, lay something, to which, as soon as 
Tom saw it, he determined to go, for that was 
the place for him. 

A deep, deep green and rocky valley, very nar- 
row, and filled with wood ; but through the wood, 050 



52 The Water-Babies 

hundreds of feet below him, he could see a clear 
stream glance. Oh, if he could but get down to 
that stream! Then, by the stream, he saw the 
roof of a little cottage, and a little garden set out 

955 in squares and beds. And there was a tiny little 
red thing moving in the garden, no bigger than 
a fly. As Tom looked down, he saw that it was a 
woman in a red petticoat. Ah! perhaps she 
would give him something to eat. And there 

960 were the church-bells ringing again. Surely there 
must be a village down there. Well, nobody 
would know him, or what had happened at the 
Place. The news could not have got there yet, 
even if Sir John had set all the policemen in the 

965 county after him; and he could get down there 
in five minutes. 

Tom was quite right about the hue-and-cry not 
having got thither; for he had come, without 
knowing it, the best part of ten miles from Harth- 

970 over; but he was wrong about getting down in 
five minutes, for the cottage was more than a 
mile off, and a good thousand feet below. 

However, down he went, like a brave little man 
as he was, though he was very footsore, and 

975 tired, and hungry, and thirsty ; while the church- 
bells rang so loud, he began to think that they 
must be inside his own head, and the river chimed 
and tinkled far below ; and this was the song which 
it sang: — 




' Before him lay. . .great plains, and farms, and villages, 
amid dark knots of trees' 1 

[S3] 



54 The Water-Babies 

980 Clear and cool, clear and cool, 

By laughing shallow, and dreaming pool ; 

Cool and clear, cool and clear, 
By shining shingle, and foaming wear; 
Under the crag where the ouzel sings, 
ess And the ivied wall where the church-bell rings, 
Undented, for the undenled; 
Play by me, bathe in me, mother and child. 

Dank and foul, dank and foul, 
By the smoky town in its murky cowl; 
990 Foul and dank, foul and dank, 
By wharf and sewer and slimy bank ; 
Darker and darker the farther I go, 
Baser and baser the richer I grow; 

Who dare sport with the sin-defiled ? 
ess Shrink from me, turn from me, mother and child. 

Strong and free, strong and free, 
The floodgates are open, away to the sea, 

Free and strong, free and strong, 
Cleansing my streams as I hurry along, 
looo To the golden sands, and the leaping bar, 
And the taintless tide that awaits me afar. 
As I lose myself in the infinite main, 
Like a soul that has sinned and is pardoned again. 
Undefiled, for the undefiled; 
1005 Play by me, bathe in me, mother and child. 

So Tom went down ; and all the while he never 
saw the Irishwoman going down behind him. 



And is there care in heaven ? and is there love 
In heavenly spirits to these creatures base 
That may compassion of their evils move ? 
There is: — else much more wretched were the case 
Of men than beasts: But oh! the exceeding grace 
Of Highest God that loves His creatures so, 
And all His works with mercy doth embrace, 
That blessed Angels He sends to and fro, 
To serve to wicked man, to serve His wicked foe! 

Spenser. 






CHAPTER II 

A MILE off, and a thousand feet down. 
So Tom found it; though it seemed as if 
he could have chucked a pebble on to theioio 
back of the woman in the red petticoat who was 
weeding in the garden, or even across the dale 
to the rocks beyond. For the bottom of the 
valley was just one field broad, and on the other 
side ran the stream; and above it, gray crag, 1015 
gray down, gray stair, gray moor walled up to 
heaven. 

A quiet, silent, rich, happy place; a narrow 
crack cut deep into the earth ; so deep, and so out 
of the way, that the bad bogies can hardly find 1020 
it out. The name of the place is Vendale; and 
if you want to see it for yourself, you must go up 
into the High Craven, and search from Bolland 
Forest north by Ingleborough, to the Nine 
Standards and Cross Fell; and if you have not 1025 
found it, you must turn south, and search the 
Lake Mountains, down to Scaw Fell and the 
sea ; and then, if you have not found it, you must 
go northward again by merry Carlisle, and 
search the Cheviots all across, from Annan Water 1030 
to Berwick Law; and then, whether you have 
found Vendale or not, you will have found such a 
country, and such a people, as ought to make 
you proud of being a British boy. 

[57] 



5# The Water-Babies 

io36 So Tom went to go down; and first he went 
down three hundred feet of steep heather, 
mixed up with loose brown gritstone, as rough 
as a file; which was not pleasant to his poor 
little heels, as he came bump, stump, jump, down 
1040 the steep. And still he thought he could throw 
a stone into the garden. 

Then he went down three hundred feet of 

limestone terraces, one below the other, as 

straight as if a carpenter had ruled them with 

1045 his ruler and then cut them out with his chisel. 

There was no heath there, but — 

First, a little grass slope, covered with the 
prettiest flowers, rockrose and saxifrage, and 
thyme and basil, and all sorts of sweet herbs. 
1050 Then bump down a two-foot step of limestone. 
Then another bit of grass and flowers. 
Then bump down a one-foot step. 
Then another bit of grass and flowers for 
fifty yards, as steep as the house-roof, where he 
1055 had to slide down on his dear little tail. 

Then another step of stone, ten feet high; and 

there he had to stop himself, and crawl along the 

edge to find a crack ; for if he had rolled over, he 

would have rolled right into the old woman's 

loeo garden, and frightened her out of her wits. 

Then, when he had found a dark narrow crack, 
full of green-stalked fern, such as hangs in the 
basket in the drawing-room, and had crawled 



The Water -Babies 59 

down through it, with knees and elbows, as he 
would down a chimney, there was another grass wes 
slope, and another step, and so on, till — oh, dear 
me ! I wish it was all over ; and so did he. And 
yet he thought he could throw a stone into the 
old woman's garden. 

At last he came to a bank of beautiful shrubs; wo 
white-beam with its great silver-backed leaves, 
and mountain-ash, and oak; and below them 
cliff and crag, cliff and crag, with great beds of 
crown-ferns and wood-sedge; while through the 
shrubs he could see the stream sparkling, and 1075 
hear it murmur on the white pebbles. He did 
not know that it was three hundred feet below. 

You would have been giddy, perhaps, at 
looking down: but Tom was not. He was a 
brave little chimney-sweep; and when he found ioso 
himself on the top of a high cliff, instead of sitting 
down and crying for his baba (though he never 
had had any baba to cry for), he said, "Ah, this 
will just suit me!" though he was very tired; 
and down he went, by stock and stone, sedge and wss 
ledge, bush and rush, as if he had been born a 
jolly little black ape, with four hands instead 
of two. 

And all the while he never saw the Irishwoman 
coming down behind him. io»o 

But he was getting terribly tired now. The 
burning sun on the fells had sucked him up; but 



60 The Water-Babies 

the damp heat of the woody crag sucked him up 
still more; and the perspiration ran out of the 

1095 ends of his fingers and toes, and washed him 
cleaner than he had been for a whole year. But 
of course, he dirtied everything terribly as he 
went. There has been a great black smudge all 
down the crag ever since. And there have been 

1100 more black beetles in Vendale since than ever 
were known before; all, of course, owing to 
Tom's having blacked the original papa of them 
all, just as he was setting off to be married, 
with a sky-blue coat and scarlet leggings, as 

no5 smart as a gardener's dog with a polyanthus in 
his mouth. 

At last he got to the bottom. But, behold, 
it was not the bottom — as people usually find 
when they are coming down a mountain. For 

mo at the foot of the crag were heaps and heaps of 
fallen limestone of every size from that of your 
head to that of a stage-waggon, with holes 
between them full of sweet heath-fern; and 
before Tom got through them, he was out in the 

iii5 bright sunshine again; and then he felt, once 
for all and suddenly, as people generally do, 
that he was b-e-a-t, beat. 

You must expect to be beat a few times in your 
life, little man, if you live such a life as a man 

1120 ought to live, let you be as strong and healthy 
as you may : and when you are, you will find it a 



The Water-Babies 61 

very ugly feeling. I hope that that day you 
may have a stout staunch friend by you who is 
not beat; for, if you have not, you had best lie 
where you are, and wait for better times, as poor "25 
Tom did. 

He could not get on. The sun was burning, 
and yet he felt chill all over. He was quite 
empty, and yet he felt quite sick. There was 
but two hundred yards of smooth pasture between 1130 
him and the cottage, and yet he could not walk 
down it. He could hear the stream murmuring 
only one field beyond it, and yet it seemed to him 
as if it was a hundred miles off. 

He lay down on the grass till the beetles ran "35 
over him, and the flies settled on his nose. I 
don't know when he would have got up again, 
if the gnats and the midges had not taken 
compassion on him. But the gnats blew their 
trumpets so loud in his ear, and the midges "40 
nibbled so at his hands and face wherever they 
could find a place free from soot, that at last he 
woke up, and stumbled away, down over a low 
wall, and into a narrow road, and up to the 
cottage-door. 1145 

And a neat pretty cottage it was, with clipped 
yew hedges all round the garden, and yews inside 
too, cut into peacocks and trumpets and teapots 
and all kinds of queer shapes. And out of the 
open door came a noise like that of the frogs on "50 



62 The Water-Babies 

the Great- A, when they know that it is going 
to be scorching hot to-morrow — and how they 
know that I don't know, and you don't know, 
and nobodv knows. 

1155 He came slowly up to the open door, which 
was all hung round with clematis and roses; and 
then peeped in, half afraid. 

And there sat by the empty fireplace, which 
was filled with a pot of sweet herbs, the nicest 

iieo old woman that ever was seen, in her red petti- 
coat, and short dimity bedgown, and clean white 
cap, with a black silk handkerchief over it, tied 
under her chin. At her feet sat the grandfather 
of all the cats; and opposite her sat, on two 

"65 benches, twelve or fourteen neat, rosy, chubby 
little " children, learning their Chris-cross-row ; 
and gabble enough they made about it. 

Such a pleasant cottage it was, with a shiny 
clean stone floor, and curious old prints on the 

1170 walls, and an old black oak sideboard full of 
bright pewter and brass dishes, and a cuckoo 
clock in the corner, which began shouting as 
soon as Tom appeared: not that it was frightened 
at Tom, but that it was just eleven o'clock. 

ins All the children started at Tom's dirty black 

figure, — the girls began to cry, and the boys 

began to laugh, and all pointed at Jiim rudely 

enough ; but Tom was too tired to care for that. 

"What art thou, and what dost want?" cried 



The Water-Babies 63 

the old dame. "A chimney-sweep! Away withnso 
thee! I'll have no sweeps here." 

"Water," said poor little Tom, quite faint. 

"Water? There's plenty i' the beck," she 
said, quite sharply. 

"But I can't get there; I'm most clemmed nss 
with hunger and drought." And Tom sank down 
upon the door-step, and laid his head against 
the post. 

And the old dame looked at him through 
her spectacles one minute, and two, and three ;n9o 
and then she said, "He's sick; and a bairn's a 
bairn, sweep or none." 

"Water," said Tom. 

"God forgive me!" and she put by her spec- 
tacles, and rose, and came to Tom. "Water's 1195 
bad for thee; I'll give thee milk." And she 
toddled off into the next room, and brought a 
cup of milk and a bit of bread. 

Tom drank the milk off at one draught, and 
then looked up, revived. 1200 

"Where didst come from?" said the dame. 

"Over Fell, there," said Tom, and pointed up 
into the sky. 

"Over Harthover? and down Lewthwaite Crag? 
Art sure thou art not lying?" 1205 

"Why should I?" said Tom, and leant his 
head against the post. 

"And how got ye up there?" 



64 The Water-Babies 

"I came over from the Place"; and Tom was 
1210 so tired and desperate he had no heart or time 
to think of a story, so he told all the truth in a 
few words. 

"Bless thy little heart! And thou hast not 
been stealing, then?" 
1215 "No." 

"Bless thy little heart! and I'll warrant not. 
Why, God's guided the bairn, because he was 
innocent! Away from the Place, and over 
Harthover Fell, and down Lewthwaite Crag! 
1220 Who ever heard the like, if God hadn't led him? 
Why dost not eat thy bread?" 
"I can't." 

"It's good enough, for I made it myself." 
"I can't," said Tom, and he laid his head on 
1225 his knees, and then asked — 
"Is it Sunday?" 
"No, then; why should it be?" 
"Because I hear the church-bells ringing so." 
"Bless thy pretty heart! The bairn's sick. 
1230 Come wi' me, and I'll hap thee up somewhere. 
If thou wert a bit cleaner I'd put thee in my own 
bed, for the Lord's sake. But come along here." 
But when Tom tried to get up, he was so tired 
and giddy that she had to help him and lead 
1235 him. 

She put him in an outhouse upon soft sweet 
hay and an old rug, and bade him sleep off his 



Artkr* 



- ^s 



c4S 



r - <&<, 



a ^ A/ 1 o 



w 



Cn~ 



a 5 $>. , 







l She toddled off into the next room, and brought a cup of milk" 

[65} 



66 The Water-Babies 

walk, and she would come to him when school 
was over, in an hour's time. 

1240 And so she went in again, expecting Tom to 
fall fast asleep at once. 
But Tom did not fall asleep. 
Instead of it he turned and tossed and kicked 
about in the strangest way, and felt so hot all 

1245 over that he longed to get into the river and 
cool himself; and then he fell half asleep, and 
dreamt that he heard the little white lady 
crying to him, "Oh, you're so dirty; go and be 
washed" ; and then that he heard the Irishwoman 

i25o saying, "Those that wish to be clean, clean they 
will be. ' ' And then he heard the church-bells ring 
so loud, close to him too, that he was sure it 
must be Sunday, in spite of what the old dame 
had said; and he would go to church, and see 

1255 what a church was like inside, for he had never 
been in one, poor little fellow, in all his life. 
But the people would never let him come in, all 
over soot and dirt like that. He must go to the 
river and wash first. And he said out loud again 

i26o and again, though being half asleep he did not 
know it, "I must be clean, I must be clean." 

And all of a sudden he found himself, not in 
the outhouse on the hay, but in the middle of a 
meadow, over the road, with the stream just 

1265 before him, saying continually, "I must be clean, 
I must be clean." He had got there on his own 



The Water-Babies 6j 

legs, between sleep and awake, as children will 
often get out of bed, and go about the room, when 
they are not quite well. But he was not a bit 
surprised, and went on to the bank of the brook, 1270 
and lay down on the grass, and looked into the 
clear, clear limestone water, with every pebble 
at the bottom bright and clean, while the little 
silver trout dashed about in fright at the sight of 
his black face; and he dipped his hand in and 1275 
found it so cool, cool, cool; and he said, "I will be 
a fish ; I will swim in the water ; I must be clean, 
I must be clean." 

So he pulled off all his clothes in such haste 
that he tore some of them, which was easy^o 
enough with such ragged old things. And he 
put his poor hot sore feet into the water; and 
then his legs; and the farther he went in, the 
more the church-bells rang in his head. 

"Ah," said Tom, "I must be quick and wash 1285 
myself; the bells are ringing quite loud now; and 
they will stop soon, and then the door will be 
shut, and I shall never be able to get in at all." 

Tom was mistaken: for in England the church 
doors are left open all service time, for everybody 1290 
who likes to come in, Churchman or Dissenter; 
ay, even if he were a Turk or a Heathen; and if 
any man dared to turn him out, as long as he 
behaved quietly, the good old English law would 
punish that man, as he deserved, for ordering 1295 



68 The Water-Babies 

any peaceable person out of God's house, which 
belongs to all alike. But Tom did not know that, 
any more than he knew a great deal more which 
people ought to know. 

1300 And all the while he never saw the Irishwoman, 
not behind him this time, but before. 

For just before he came to the river side, she 
had stept down into the cool clear water ; and 
her shawl and her petticoat floated off her, and the 

1305 green water- weeds floated round her sides, and 
the white water-lilies floated round her head, and 
the fairies of the stream came up from the bottom 
and bore her away and down upon their arms; 
for she was the Queen of them all; and perhaps 

isio of more besides. 

"Where have you been?" they asked her. 
"I have been smoothing sick folks' pillows, 
and whispering sweet dreams into their ears; 
opening cottage casements, to let out the stifling 

1315 air; coaxing little children away from gutters, 
and foul pools where fever breeds ; turning women 
from the gin-shop door, and staying men's hands 
as they were going to strike their wives; doing 
all I can to help those who will not help them- 

1320 selves: and little enough that is, and weary work 

for me. But I have brought you a new little 

brother, and watched him safe all the way here." 

Then all the fairies laughed for joy at the 

thought that they had a little brother coming. 



The Water -Babies 6g 

"But mind, maidens, he must not see you, or 1325 
know that you are here. He is but a savage now, 
and like the beasts which perish ; and from the 
beasts which perish he must learn. So you must 
not play with him, or speak to him, or let him see 
you: but only keep him from being harmed." "30 

Then the fairies were sad, because they could 
not play with their new brother, but they always 
did what they were told. 

And their Queen floated away down the river, 
and whither she went, thither she came. But 1335 
all this Tom, of course, never saw or heard: and 
perhaps if he had it would have made little 
difference in the story; for he was so hot and 
thirsty, and longed so to be clean for once, that 
he tumbled himself as quick as he could into thewio 
clear cool stream. 

And he had not been in it two minutes before 
he fell fast asleep, into the quietest, sunniest, 
cosiest sleep that ever he had in his life; and he 
dreamt about the green meadows by which he had 13*5 
walked that morning, and the tall elm-trees, and 
the sleeping cows; and after that he dreamt of 
nothing at all. 

The reason of his falling into such a delightful 
sleep is very simple ; and yet hardly any one has 1350 
found it out. It was merely that the fairies 
took him. 

Some people think that there are no fairies. 



jo The Water-Babies 

Cousin Cramchild tells little folks so in his Con- 

1355 versations. Well, perhaps there are none — in 
Boston, U.S., where he was raised. There are 
only a clumsy lot of spirits there, who can't make 
people hear without thumping on the table: but 
they get their living thereby, and I suppose that 

iseo is all they want. And Aunt Agitate, in her Ar- 
guments on political economy, says there are none. 
Well, perhaps there are none — in her political 
economy. But it is a wide world, my little man — 
and thank Heaven for it, for else, between crino- 

1365 lines and theories, some of us would get squashed 
— and plenty of room in it for fairies, without 
people seeing them; unless, of course, they look 
in the right place. The most wonderful and the 
strongest things in the world, you know, are 

1370 just the things which no one can see. There is 
life in you ; and it is the life in you which makes 
you grow, and move, and think: and yet you 
can't see it. And there is steam in a steam- 
engine ; and that is what makes it move : and 

1375 yet you can't see it; and so there may be fairies 
in the world, and they may be just what makes 
the world go round to the old tune of 

"C'est l'amour, l'amour, l'amour 
Quit fait la monde a la ronde:" 

isso and yet no one may be able to see them except 
those whose hearts are going round to that same 
tune. At all events, we will make believe that 



The Water -Babies 7 1 

there are fairies in the world. It will not be 
the last time by many a one that we shall have 
to make believe. And yet, after all, there is noi385 
need for that. There must be fairies; for this is 
a fairy tale : and how can one have a fairy tale if 
there are no fairies? 

You don't see the logic of that? Perhaps not. 
Then please not to see the logic of a great many 1390 
arguments exactly like it, which you will hear 
before your beard is gray. 

The kind old dame came back at twelve, when 
school was over, to look at Tom : but there was no 
Tom there. She looked about for his footprints ; 1395 
but the ground was so hard that there was no 
slot, as they say in dear old North Devon. And if 
you grow up to be a brave healthy man, you may 
know some day what no slot means, and know 
too, I hope, what a slot does mean— a broad slot, woo 
with blunt claws, which makes a man put out his 
cigar, and set his teeth, and tighten his girths, 
when he sees it ; and what his rights mean, if he has 
them, brow, bay, tray, and points; and see some- 
thing worth seeing between Haddon Wood and 1405 
Countisbury Cliff, with good Mr. Palk Collyns 
to show you the way, and mend your bones as 
fast as you smash them. Only when that jolly 
day comes, please don't break your neck; stogged 
in a mire you never will be, I trust; for you are ai«o 
heath-cropper bred and born. 



J2 The Water-Babies 

So the old dame went in again quite sulky, 
thinking that little Tom had tricked her with a 
false story, and shammed ill, and then run away 

his again. 

But she altered her mind the next day. For, 
when Sir John and the rest of them had run 
themselves out of breath, and lost Tom, they 
went back again, looking very foolish. 

i«o And they looked more foolish still when Sir 
John heard more of the story from the nurse; 
and more foolish still, again, when they heard 
the whole story from Miss Ellie, the little lady 
in white. All she had seen was a poor little 

i«5 black chimney-sweep, crying and sobbing, and 
going to get up the chimney again. Of course, 
she was very much frightened: and no wonder. 
But that was all. The boy had taken nothing 
in the room; by the mark of his little sooty 

i«o feet, they could see that he had never been off 
the hearthrug till the nurse caught hold of him. 
It was all a mistake. 

So Sir John told Grimes to go home, and 
promised him five shillings if he would bring 

1435 the boy quietly up to him, without beating him, 
that he might be sure of the truth. For he 
took for granted, and Grimes too, that Tom 
had made his way home. 

But no Tom came back to Mr. Grimes that 

1440 evening; and he went to the police-office, to 



The Water -Babies 73 

tell them to look out for the boy. But no Tom 
was heard of. As for his having gone over 
those great fells to Vendale, they no more 
dreamed of that than of his having gone to the 
moon. 14 <5 

So Mr. Grimes came up to Harthover next 
day with a very sour face ; but when he got there, 
Sir John was over the hills and far away; and 
Mr. Grimes had to sit in the outer servants' hall 
all day, and drink strong ale to wash away his "so 
sorrows ; and they were washed away long before 
Sir John came back. 

For good Sir John had slept very badly that 
night; and he said to his lady, "My dear, the 
boy must have got over into the grouse-moors, i«5 
and lost himself; and he lies very heavily on my 
conscience, poor little lad. But I know what 

I will do." 

* 

So, at five the next morning up he got, and 
into his bath, and into his shooting- jacket and«fio 
gaiters, and into the stableyard, like a fine old 
English gentleman, with a face as red as a rose, 
and a hand as hard as a table, and a back as 
broad as a bullock's; and bade them bring his 
shooting pony, and the keeper to come on hisses 
pony, and the huntsman, and the first whip, and 
the second whip, and the underkeeper with the 
bloodhound in a leash — a great dog as tall as a 
calf, of the colour of a gravel-walk, with mahogany 



74 The Water-Babies 

1470 ears and nose, and a throat like a church-bell. 
They took him up to the place where Tom had 
gone into the wood; and there the hound lifted 
up his mighty voice, and told them all he knew. 
Then he took them to the place where Tom 
1475 had climbed the wall; and they shoved it down, 
and all got through. 

And then the wise dog took them over the 
moor, and over the fells, step by step, very 
slowly; for the scent was a day old, you know, 
"so and very light from the heat and drought. But 
that was why cunning old Sir John started at 
five in the morning. 

And at last he came to the top of Lewthwaite 
Crag, and there he bayed, and looked up in their 
1485 faces, as much as to say, "I tell you he is gone 
down there!" 

They could hardly believe that Tom would 

have gone so far; and when they looked at that 

awful cliff, they could never believe that he 

1490 would have dared to face it. But if the dog said 

so, it must be true. 

"Heaven forgive us!" said Sir John. "If we 
find him at all, we shall find him lying at the 
bottom." And he slapped his great hand upon 
1495 his great thigh, and said — 

"Who will go down over Lewthwaite Crag, and 
see if that boy is alive? Oh that I were twenty 
years younger, and I would go down myself!" 



1500 



The Water-Babies 75 

And so he would have done, as well as any 
sweep in the county. Then he said — 

"Twenty pounds to the man who brings me 
that boy alive!" and as was his way, what he 
said he meant. 

Now among the lot was a little groom-boy, a 
very little groom indeed; and he was the same 1505 
who had ridden up the court, and told Tom to 
come to the Hall; and he said — 

'Twenty pounds or none, I will go down over 
Lewthwaite Crag, if it's only for the poor boy's 
sake. For he was as civil a spoken little chap 1510 
as ever climbed a flue." 

So down over Lewthwaite Crag he went: a 
very smart groom he was at the top, and a 
very shabby one at the bottom; for. he tore his 
gaiters, and he tore his breeches, and he tore 1515 
his jacket, and he burst his braces, and he burst 
his boots, and he lost his hat, and what was 
worst of all, he lost his shirt pin, which he prized 
very much, for it was gold, and he had won it 
in a raffle at Malton, and there was a figure at the 1520 
top of it, of t'ould mare, noble old Beeswing 
herself, as natural as life ; so it was a really severe 
loss: but he never saw anything of Tom. 

And all the while Sir John and the rest were 
riding round, full three miles to the right, and 1525 
back again, to get into Vendale, and to the foot 
of the crag. 



y6 The Water-Babies 

When they came to the old dame's school, all the 
children came out to see. And the old dame came 
i53o out too ; and when she saw Sir John, she curtsied 
very low, for she was a tenant of his. 

"Well, dame, and how are you?" said Sir John. 
"Blessings on you as broad as your back, 
Harthover," says she — she didn't call him Sir 
1535 John, but only Harthover, for that is the fashion 
in the North country — "and welcome into Ven- 
dale : but you're no hunting the fox this time 
of the year?" 

"I am hunting, and strange game too," said he. 
1540 "Blessings on your heart, and what makes 
you look so sad the morn?" 

"I'm looking for a lost child, a chimney- 
sweep, that is run away." 

"Oh, Harthover, Harthover," says she, "ye were 
1545 always a just man and a merciful ; and ye '11 no harm 
the poor little lad if I give you tidings of him? " 

"Not I, not I, dame. I'm afraid we hunted 
him out of the house all on a miserable mistake, 
and the hound has brought him to the top of 

1550 Lewthwaite Crag, and " 

Whereat the old dame broke out crying, 
without letting him finish his story. 

"So he told me the truth after all, poor little 
dear! Ah, first thoughts are best, and a body's 
1555 heart '11 guide them right, if they will but hearken 
to it." And then she told Sir John all. 



The Water-Babies 77 

"Bring the dog here, and lay him on," said 
Sir John, without another word, and he set his 
teeth very hard. 

And the dog opened at once; and went awayiseo 
at the back of the cottage, over the road, and 
over the meadow, and through a bit of alder copse ; 
and there, upon an alder stump, they saw Tom's 
clothes lying. And then they knew as much 
about it all as there was any need to know. ises 

And Tom? 

Ah, now comes the most wonderful part of this 
wonderful story. Tom, when he woke, for of 
course he woke — children always wake after they 
have slept exactly as long as is good for them— wo 
found himself swimming about in the stream, 
being about four inches, or— that I may be accu- 
rate — 3.87902 inches long, and having round the 
parotid region of his fauces a set of external 
gills (I hope you understand all the big words) 1575 
just like those of a sucking eft, which he mistook 
for a lace frill, till he pulled at them, found he hurt 
himself, and made up his mind that they were 
part of himself, and best left alone. 

In fact, the fairies had turned him into aisso 
water-baby. 

A water-baby? You never heard of a water- 
baby. Perhaps not. That is the very reason 
why this story was written. There are a great 
many things in the world which you never isks 



y8 The Water-Babies 

heard of; and a great many more which nobody 
ever heard of; and a great many things, too, 
which nobody will ever hear of, at least until 
the coming of the Cocqcigrues, when man shall 

1590 be the measure of all things. 

"But there are no such things as water-babies." 

How do you know that? Have you been 

there to see? And if you had been there to see, 

and had seen none, that would not prove that 

1595 there were none. If Mr. Garth does not find 
a fox in Eversley Wood— as folks sometimes fear 
he never will — that does not prove that there are 
no such things as foxes. And as is Eversley 
Wood to all the woods in England, so are the 

leoo waters we know to all the waters in the world. 
And no one has a right to say that no water- 
babies exist, till they have seen no water-babies 
existing; which is quite a different thing, mind, 
from not seeing water-babies ; and a thing which 

1605 nobody ever did, or perhaps ever will do. 

"But surely if there were water-babies, some- 
body would have caught one at least?" 

Well. How do you know that somebody has 
not? 

leio "But they would have put it into spirits, or 
into the Illustrated News, or perhaps cut it into 
two halves, poor dear little thing, and sent one to 
Professor Owen, and one to Professor Huxley ,. 
to see what they would each say about it." 



The Water-Babies . 79 

Ah, my dear little man! that does not follow ww 
at all, as you will see before the end of the story. 

"But a water-baby is contrary to nature." 

Well, but, my dear little man, you must learn to 
talk about such things, when you grow older, in 
a very different way from that. You must not^o 
talk about "ain't" and "can't" when you speak 
of this great wonderful world round you, of which 
the wisest man knows only the very smallest cor- 
ner, and is, as the great Sir Isaac Newton said, 
only a child picking up pebbles on the shore of ai625 
boundless ocean. 

You must not say that this cannot be, or that 
that is contrary to nature. You do not know 
what Nature is, or what she can do ; and nobody 
knows; not even Sir Roderick Murchison, orwso 
Professor Owen, or Professor Sedgwick, or Pro- 
fessor Huxley, or Mr. Darwin, or Professor Fara- 
day, or Mr. Grove, or any other of the great men 
whom good boys are taught to respect. They 
are very wise men; and you must listen respect- less 
fully to all they say: but even if they should 
say, which I am sure they never would, "That 
cannot exist. That is contrary to nature," you 
must wait a little, and see; for perhaps even 
they may be wrong. It is only children whoi64o 
read Aunt Agitate's Arguments, or Cousin Cram- 
child's Conversations; or lads who go to popular 
lectures, and see a man pointing at a few big ugly 



80 The Water-Babies 

pictures on the wall, or making nasty smells with 

1645 bottles and squirts, for an hour or two, and calling 
that anatomy or chemistry — who talk about 
" cannot exist," and "contrary to nature." Wise 
men are afraid to say that there is anything 
contrary to nature, except what is contrary to 

i65o mathematical truth; for two and two cannot 
make five, and two straight lines cannot join 
twice, and a part cannot be as great as the whole, 
and so on (at least, so it seems at present) : but 
the wiser men are, the less they talk about "can- 

1655 not." That is a very rash, dangerous word, that 
"cannot"; and if people use it too often, the 
Queen of all the Fairies, who makes the clouds 
thunder and the fleas bite, and takes just as 
much trouble about one as about the other, is 

i66o apt to astonish them suddenly by showing them, 
that though they say she cannot, yet she can, 
and what is more, will, whether they approve 
or not. 

And therefore it is, that there are dozens and 

lees hundreds of things in the world which we should 
certainly have said were contrary to nature, if 
we did not see them going on under our eyes all 
day long. If people had never seen little seeds 
grow into great plants and trees, of quite different 

1670 shape from themselves, and these trees again pro- 
duce fresh seeds, to grow into fresh trees, they 
would have said, "The thing cannot be; it is 



The Water-Babies 81 

contrary to nature." And they would have been 
quite as right in saying so, as in saying that 
most other things cannot be. ic?* 

Or suppose again, that you had come, like 
M. Du Chaillu, a traveller from unknown parts ; 
and that no human being had ever seen or 
heard of an elephant. And suppose that you 
described him to people, and said, "This is the«»o 
shape, and plan, and anatomy of the beast, and 
of his feet, and of his trunk, and of his grinders, 
and of his tusks, though they are not tusks at 
all, but two fore teeth run mad; and this is the 
section of his skull, more like a mushroom than aieso 
reasonable skull of a reasonable or unreasonable 
beast; and so forth, and so forth; and though 
the beast (which I assure you I have seen and 
shot) is first cousin to the little hairy coney of 
Scripture, second cousin to a pig, and (I suspect) mo 
thirteenth or fourteenth cousin to a rabbit, yet 
he is the wisest of all beasts, and can do every- 
thing save read, write, and cast accounts." 
People would surely have said, "Nonsense; your 
elephant is contrary to nature"; and havens 
thought you were telling stories — as the French 
thought of Le Vaillant when he came back to 
Paris and said that he had shot a giraffe; and 
as the king of the Cannibal Islands thought 
of the English sailor, when he said that in woo 
his country water turned to marble, and rain 



82 The Water-Babies 

fell as feathers. They would tell you, the more 
they knew of science, "Your elephant is an im- 
possible monster, contrary to the laws of com- 

nosparative anatomy, as far as yet known." To 
which you would answer the less, the more you 
thought. 

Did not learned men, too, hold, till within the 
last twenty -five years, that a flying dragon was 

1710 an impossible monster ? And do we not now know 
that there are hundreds of them found fossil 
up and down the world ? People call them Ptero- 
dactyles: but that is only because they are 
ashamed to call them flying dragons, after denying 

1715 so long that flying dragons could exist. 

The truth is, that folks' fancy that such and 
such things cannot be, simply because they have 
not seen them, is worth no more than a savage's 
fancy that there cannot be such a thing as a 

mo locomotive, because he never saw one running 
wild in the forest. Wise men know that their 
business is to examine what is, and not to settle 
what is not. They know that there are elephants ; 
they know that there have been flying dragons; 

1725 and the wiser they are, the less inclined they 
will be to say positively that there are no water- 
babies. 

No water-babies, indeed? Why, wise men 
of old said that everything on earth had its 

1730 double in the water ; and you may see that that is, 



The Water-Babies 83 

if not quite true, still quite as true as most other 
theories which you are likely to hear for many 
a day. There are land-babies — then why not 
water-babies? Are there not water-rats, water-flies, 
water -crickets, water-crabs, water -tortoises, water- ms 
scorpions, water-tigers and water-hogs, water-cats 
and water-dogs, sea-lions and sea-bears, sea-horses 
and sea-elephants, sea-mice and sea-urchins, sea- 
razors and sea-pens, sea-combs and sea- fans; and 
of plants, are there not water-grass, and water-crow- mo 
foot, water -milfoil, and so on, without end? 

"But all these things are only nicknames; 
the water things are not really akin to the land ■ 
things." 

That's not always true. They are, in millions 1745 
of cases, not only of the same family, but actually 
the same individual creatures. Do not even 
you know that a green drake, and an alder-fly, 
and a dragon-fly, live under water till they 
change their skins, just as Tom changed his ? And 1750 
if a water animal can continually change into a 
land animal, why should not a land animal some- 
times change into a water animal? Don't be put 
down by any of Cousin Cramchild's arguments, 
but stand up to him like a man, and answer him 1755 
(quite respectfully, of course) thus : — 

If Cousin Cramchild says, that if there are 
water-babies, they must grow into water-men, 
ask him how he knows that they do not? and 



84 The Water-Babies 

mother!, how he knows that they must, any more 
than the Proteus of the Adelsberg caverns grows 
into a perfect newt. 

If he says that it is too strange a transformation 
for a land-baby to turn into a water-baby, ask 

1765 him if he ever heard of the transformation of 
Syllis, or the Distomas, or the common jelly-fish, 
of which M. Quatrefages says excellently well — 
"Who would not exclaim that a miracle had 
come to pass, if he saw a reptile come out of the 

1770 egg dropped by the hen in his poultry-yard, and 
the reptile give birth at once to an indefinite 
number of fishes and birds? Yet the history of 
the jelly-fish is quite as wonderful as that would 
be." Ask him if he knows about all this; and if 

1775 he does not, tell him to go and look for himself ; 
and advise him (very respectfully, of course) to 
settle no more what strange things cannot hap- 
pen, till he has seen what strange things do happen 
every day. 

nso If he says that things cannot degrade, that is, 
change downwards into lower forms, ask him, who 
told him that water-babies were lower than 
land-babies? But even if they were, does he 
know about the strange degradation of the com- 

n85 mon goose-barnacles, which one finds sticking 
on ships' bottoms; or the still stranger degra- 
dation of some cousins of theirs, of which one 
hardly likes to talk, so shocking and ugly it is? 



The Water-Babies 85 

And, lastly, if he says (as he most certainly 
will) that these transformations only take place "*> 
in the lower animals, and not in the higher, say 
that that seems to little boys, and to some grown 
people, a very strange fancy. For if the changes 
of the lower animals are so wonderful, and so 
difficult to discover, why should not there be ww 
changes in the higher animals far more wonderful, 
and far more difficult to discover? And may not 
man, the crown and flower of all things, undergo 
some change as much more wonderful than all 
the rest, as the Great Exhibition is more won-isoo 
derful than a rabbit-burrow? Let him answer 
that. And if he says (as he will) that not having 
seen such a change in his experience, he is not 
bound to believe it, ask him respectfully, where 
his microscope has been? Does not each ofisos 
us, in coming into this world, go through a trans- 
formation just as wonderful as that of a sea-egg, 
or a butterfly ? And do not reason and analogy, as 
well as Scripture, tell us that that transforma- 
tion is not the last? and that, though what wewio 
shall be, we know not, yet we are here but as 
the crawling caterpillar, and shall be hereafter 
as the perfect fly. The old Greeks, heathens as 
they were, saw as much as that two thousand 
years ago ; and I care very little for Cousin Cram- isis 
child, if he sees even less than they. And so 
forth, and so forth, till he is quite cross. And 



86 The Water-Babies 

then tell him that if there are no water-babies, at 
least there ought to be; and that, at least, he 

1820 cannot answer. 

And meanwhile, my dear little man, till you 
know a great deal more about nature than 
Professor Owen and Professor Huxley put to- 
gether, don't tell me about what cannot be, or 

1825 fancy that anything is too wonderful to be true. 
"We are fearfully and wonderfully made," said 
old David; and so we are; and so is everything 
around us, down to the very deal table. Yes; 
much more fearfully and wonderfully made, 

i83o already, is the table, as it stands now, nothing 
but a piece of dead deal wood, than if, as foxes 
say, and geese believe, spirits could make it dance, 
or talk to you by rapping on it. 

Am I in earnest? Oh dear no! Don't you 

1835 know that this is a fairy tale, and all fun and 
pretence; and that you are not to believe one 
word of it, even if it is true? 

But at all events, so it happened to Tom. 
And, therefore, the keeper, and the groom, and 

i84o Sir John made a great mistake, and were very 
unhappy (Sir John at least) without any reason, 
when they found a black thing in the water, and 
said it was Tom's body, and that he had been 
drowned. They were utterly mistaken. Tom 

1845 was quite alive; and cleaner, and merrier, than 
he ever had been. The fairies had washed him, 



The Water-Babies 87 

you see, in the swift river, so thoroughly, that 
not only his dirt, but his whole husk and shell 
had been washed quite off him, and the pretty 
little real Tom was -washed out of the inside of isso 
it, and swam away, as a caddis does when its 
case of stones and silk is bored through, and 
away it goes on its back, paddling to the shore, 
there to split its skin, and fly away as a caperer, 
on four fawn-coloured wings, with long legsisss 
and horns. They are foolish fellows, the ca- 
perers, and fly into the candle at night, if you 
leave the door open. We will hope Tom will 
be wiser, now he has got safe out of his sooty 
old shell. i860 

But good Sir John did not understand all this, 
not being a fellow of the Linnaean Society; and 
he took it into his head that Tom was drowned. 
When they looked into the empty pockets of his 
shell, and found no jewels there, nor money — 1865 
nothing but three marbles, and a brass button 
with a string to it — then Sir John did something 
as like crying as ever he did in his life, and blamed 
himself more bitterly than he need have done. 
So he cried, and the groom-boy cried, and the wo 
huntsman cried, and the dame cried, and the little 
girl cried, and the dairymaid cried, and the old 
nurse cried (for it was somewhat her fault), and 
My Lady cried, for though people have wigs, that 
is no reason why they should not have hearts ; but ws 



88 The Water-Babies 

the keeper did not cry, though he had been so 
good-natured to Tom the morning before ; for he 
was so dried up with running after poachers, 
that you could no more get tears out of him than 

i88o milk out of leather: and Grimes did not cry, for 
Sir John gave him ten pounds, and he drank it 
all in a week. Sir John sent, far and wide, to find 
Tom's father and mother: but he might have 
looked till Doomsday for them, for one was dead, 

1885 and the other was in Botany Bay. And the 
little girl would not play with her dolls for a 
whole week, and never forgot poor little Tom. 
And soon My Lady put a pretty little tombstone 
over Tom's shell in the little churchyard in 

i89oVendale, where the old dalesmen all sleep side by 

. side between the limestone crags. And the dame 
decked it with garlands every Sunday, till she 
grew so old that she could not stir abroad ; then 
the little children decked it for her. And always 

1895 she sang an old old song, as she sat spinning 
what she called her wedding-dress. The children 
could not understand it, but they liked it none the 
less for that ; for it was very sweet, and very sad ; 
and that was enough for them. And these are 

i9oo the words of it: — 

When all the world is young, lad, 

And all the trees are green ; 
'And every goose a swan, lad, 
And every lass a queen ; 



The Water -Babies 8g 

Then hey for boot and horse, lad, 1905 

And round the world away ; 
Young blood must have its course, lad , 

And every dog his day. 

When all the world is old, lad, 

And all the trees are brown ; 1910 

And all the sport is stale, lad, 

And all the wheels run down ; 
Creep home, and take your place there, 

The spent and maimed among : 
God grant you find one face there, 1^3 

You loved when all was young. 

Those are the words: but they are only the 
body of it : the soul of the song was the dear old 
woman's sweet face, and sweet voice, and the sweet 
old air to which she sang ; and that, alas ! one can- 1920 
not put on paper. And at last she grew so stiff 
and lame, that the angels were forced to carry 
her; and they helped her on with her wedding- 
dress, and carried her up over Harthover Fells, 
and a long way beyond that too; and there was 1925 
a new schoolmistress in Vendale, and we will hope 
that she was not certificated. 

And all the while Tom was swimming about 
in the river, with a pretty little lace-collar of 
gills about his neck, as lively as a grig, and as 1930 
clean as a fresh-run salmon. 

Now if you don't like my story, then go to the 



go The Water-Babies 

schoolroom and learn your multiplication-table, 
and see if you like that better. Some people, no 
1935 doubt, would do so. So much the better for us, 
if not for them. It takes all sorts, they say, to 
make a world. 



He prayeth well who loveth well 
Both man and bird and beast. 
He prayeth best who loveth best 
All things both great and small: 
For the dear God who loveth us, 
He made and loveth all. 

Coleridge. 



CHAPTER III 

TOM was now quite amphibious. You do 
not know what that means? You had 
better, then, ask the nearest Go vernment imo 
pupil-teacher, who may possibly answer you 
smartly enough, thus — 

"Amphibious. Adjective, derived from two 
Greek words, amphi, a fish, and bios, a beast. An 
animal supposed by our ignorant ancestors to be 1945 
compounded of a fish and a beast; which there- 
fore, like the hippopotamus, can't live on the land, 
and dies in the water." 

However that may be, Tom was amphibious: 
and what is better still, he was clean. For the 1950 
first time in his life, he felt how comfortable it 
was to have nothing on him but himself. But he 
only enjoyed it: he did not know it, or think 
about it; just as you enjoy life and health, and 
yet never think about being alive and healthy; 1955 
and may it be long before you have to think 
about it! 

He did not remember having ever been dirty. 
Indeed, he did not remember any of his old 
troubles, being tired, or hungry, or beaten, or sent^o 
up dark chimneys. Since that sweet sleep, he 
had forgotten all about his master, and Harth- 
over Place, and the little white girl, and in a 
word, all that had happened to him when he lived 

[93] 



Q4 The Water-Babies 

W65 before; and what was best of all, he had forgot- 
ten all the bad words which he had learned from 
Grimes, and the rude boys with whom he used 
to play. 

That is not strange: for you know, when you 
i97o came into this world, and became a land-baby, 
you remembered nothing. So why should he, 
when he became a water-baby? 
Then have you lived before? 
My dear child, who can tell? One can only 
1975 tell that, by remembering something which 
happened where he lived before; and as we re- 
member nothing, we know nothing about it ; and 
no book, and no man, can ever tell us certainly. 
There was a wise man once, a very wise man, 
W80 and a very good man, who wrote a poem about 
the feelings which some children have about 
having lived before; and this is what he said — 

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting ; 
The soul that rises with us, our life's star, 
1985 Hath elsewhere had its setting, 

And cometh from afar: 
Not in entire forgetfulness, 
And not in utter nakedness, 
But trailing clouds of glory, do we come 
1990 From God, who is our home. 

There, you can know no more than that. But 
if I was you, I would believe that. For then the 
great fairy Science, who is likely to be queen of 



The Water-Babies 95 

all the fairies for many a year to come, can only 
do you good, and never do you harm ; and instead. 1995 
of fancying, with some people, that your body 
makes your soul, as if a steam-engine could make 
its own coke ; or, with some people, that your soul 
has nothing to do with your body, but is only 
stuck into it like a pin into a pincushion, to fall 2000 
out with the first shake;— you will believe the 
one true, 

orthodox, inductive, 

rational, deductive, 

philosophical, seductive, 2005 

logical, productive, 

irrefragable, salutary, 

nominalistic, comfortable, 
realistic, 
and on-all-accounts-to-be-received 2010 

doctrine of this wonderful fairy tale; which is, 
that your soul makes your body, just as a snail 
makes his shell. For the rest, it is enough for 
us to be sure that whether or not we lived before, 
we shall live again; though not, I hope, as poor 2015 
little heathen Tom did. For he went downward 
into the water: but we, I hope, shall go upward 
to a very different place. 

But Tom was very happy in the water. He 
had been sadly overworked in the land-world ; 2020 
and so now, to make up for that, he had nothing 



g6 The Water-Babies 

but holidays in the water-world for a long, long 
time to come. He had nothing to do now but 
enjoy himself, and look at all the pretty things 

2025 which are to be seen in the cool clear water- world, 
where the sun is never too hot, and the frost is 
never too cold. 

And what did he live on? Water-cresses, 
perhaps ; or perhaps water-gruel, and water-milk ; 

2030 too many land-babies do so likewise. But we do 
not know what one-tenth of the water-things eat ; 
so we are not answerable for the water-babies. 

Sometimes he went along the smooth gravel 
water-ways, looking at the crickets which ran in 

203s and out among the stones, as rabbits do on land ; 
or he climbed over the ledges of rock, and saw the 
sand-pipes hanging in thousands, with every one 
of them a pretty little head and legs peeping 
out; or he went into a still corner, and watched 

2040 the caddises eating dead sticks as greedily as 
you would eat plum-pudding, and building their 
houses with silk and glue. Very fanciful ladies 
they were ; none of them would keep to the same 
materials for a day. One would begin with some 

2045 pebbles ; then she would stick on a piece of green 
wood ; then she found a shell, and stuck it on too ; 
and the poor shell was alive, and did not like at 
all being taken to build houses with: but the 
caddis did not let him have any voice in the matter, 

2050 being rude and selfish, as vain people are apt 



2060 



The Water-Babies 97 

to be ; then she stuck on a piece of rotten wood, 
then a very smart pink stone, and so on, till she 
was patched all over like an Irishman's coat. 
Then she found a long straw, five times as long as 
herself, and said, ''Hurrah! my sister has a tail, 2055 
and I'll have one too"; and she stuck it on her 
back, and marched about with it quite proud, 
though it was very inconvenient indeed. And, 
at that, tails became all the fashion among the 
caddis-baits in that pool, as they were at the end 
of the Long Pond last May, and they all toddled 
about with long straws sticking out behind, 
getting between each other's legs, and tumbling 
over each other, and looking so ridiculous, that 
Tom laughed at them till he cried, as we did.2065 
But they were quite right, you know ; for people 
must always follow the fashion, even if it be 
spoon-bonnets. 

Then sometimes he came to a deep still reach; 
and there he saw the water-forests. They would 2070 
have looked to you only little weeds : but Tom, 
you must remember, was so little that every- 
thing looked a hundred times as big to him as it 
does to you, just as things do to a minnow, who 
sees and catches the little water-creatures which 2075 
you can only see in a microscope. 

And in the water-forest he saw the water- 
monkeys and water-squirrels (they had all six 
legs, though; everything almost has six legs in 



q8 The Water-Babies 

2080 the water, except efts and water-babies); and 
nimbly enough they ran among the branches. 
There were water-flowers there too, in thousands ; 
and Tom tried to pick them: but as soon as he 
touched them, they . drew themselves in and 

2085 turned into knots of jelly ; and then Tom saw that 
they were all alive — bells, and stars, and wheels, 
and flowers, of all beautiful shapes and colours; 
and all alive and busy, just as Tom was. So now 
he found that there was a great deal more in the 

2090 world than he had fancied at first sight. 

There was one wonderful little fellow, too, who 
peeped, out of the top of a house built of round 
bricks. He had two big wheels, and one little one, 
all over teeth, spinning round and round like the 

2095 wheels in a thrashing-machine; and Tom stood 
and stared at him, to see what he was going to 
make with his machinery. And what do you 
think he was doing? Brick-making. With his 
two big wheels he swept together all the mud 

2100 which floated in the water: all that was nice in 
it he put into his stomach and ate; and all the 
mud he put into the little wheel on his breast, 
which really was a round hole set with teeth ; and 
there he spun it into a neat hard round brick; 

2105 and then he took it and stuck it on the top of his 
house-wall, and set to work to make another. 
Now was not he a clever little fellow? 
Tom thought so: but when he wanted to talk 



The Water Babies QQ 

to him the brick-maker was much too busy and 
proud of his work to take notice of him. 2110 

Now you must know that all the things under 
the water talk ; only not such a language as ours ; 
but such as horses, and dogs, and cows, and birds 
talk to each other; and Tom soon learned to 
understand them and talk to them; so that he 2115 
might have had very pleasant company if he had 
only been a good boy. But I am sorry to say, 
he was too like some other little boys, very fond 
of hunting and tormenting creatures for mere 
sport. Some people say that boys cannot help 2120 
it; that it is nature, and only a proof that we 
are all originally descended from beasts of prey. 
But whether it is nature or not, little boys can 
help it, and must help it. For if they have 
naughty, low, mischievous tricks in their nature, 2125 
as monkeys have, that is no reason why they 
should give way to those tricks like monkeys, 
who know no better. And therefore they must 
not torment dumb creatures; for if they do, a 
certain old lady who is coming will surely give 2130 
them exactly what they deserve. 

But Tom did not know that; and he pecked 
and howked the poor water-things about sadly, 
till they were all afraid of him, and got out of his 
way, or crept into their shells; so he had no one 2135 
to speak to or play with. 

The water-fairies, of course, were very sorry 



ioo The Water-Babies 

to see him so unhappy, and longed to take him, 
and tell him how naughty he was, and teach him 

2140 to be good, and to play and romp with him too: 
but they had been forbidden to do that. Tom 
had to learn his lesson for himself by sound and 
sharp experience, as many another foolish person 
has to do, though there may be many a kind heart 

2145 yearning over them all the while, and longing to 

teach them what they can only teach themselves. 

At last one day he found a caddis, and wanted 

it to peep out of its house; but its house-door 

was shut. He had never seen a caddis with a 

2150 house-door before: so what must he do, the 
meddlesome little fellow, but pull it open, to see 
what the poor lady was doing inside. What a 
shame! How would you like to have any one 
breaking your bedroom-door in, to see how you 

2155 looked when you were in bed? So Tom broke 
to pieces the door, which was the prettiest little 
grating of silk, stuck all over with shining bits 
of crystal; and when he looked in, the caddis 
poked out her head, and it had turned into just 

2160 the shape of a bird's. But when Tom spoke to 

her she could not answer; for her mouth and 

* face were tight tied up in a new night-cap of neat 

pink skin. However, if she didn't answer, all the 

other caddises did; for they held up their hands 

2105 and shrieked like the cats in Struwelpeter : 
"Oh, you nasty horrid boy; there you are at it 



The Water-Babies 101 

again! And she had just laid herself up for a 
fortnight's sleep, and then she would have come out 
with such beautiful wings, and flown about, and 
laid such lots of eggs: and now you have broken 2170 
her door, and she can't mend it because her mouth 
is tied up for a fortnight, and she will die. Who 
sent you here to worry us out of our lives?" 

So Tom swam away. He was very much 
ashamed of himself, and felt all the naughtier; 2175 
as little boys do when they have done wrong 
and won't say so. 

Then he came to a pool full of little trout, 
and began tormenting them, and trying to 
catch them : but they slipped through his fingers, 2180 
and jumped clean out of water in their fright. 
But as Tom chased them, he came close to a great 
dark hover under an alder root, and out floushed 
a huge old brown trout ten times as big as he was, 
and ran right against him, and knocked all the2i85 
breath out of his body ; and I don't know which 
was the more frightened of the two. 

Then he went on sulky and lonely, as he de- 
served to be ; and under a bank he saw a very 
ugly dirty creature sitting, about half as big aszwo 
himself; which had six legs, and a big stomach, 
and a most ridiculous head with two great eyes 
and a face just like a donkey's. 

"Oh," said Tom, "you are an ugly fellow to be 
sure!" and he began making faces at him; and 2195 



2200 



102 The Water-Babies 

put his nose close to him, and halloed at him, 
like a very rude boy. 

When, hey presto! all the thing's donkey -face 
came off in a moment, and out popped a long 
arm with a pair of pincers at the end of it, and 
caught Tom by the nose. It did not hurt him 
much ; but it held him quite tight. 

"Yah, ah! Oh, let me go!" cried Tom. 

"Then let me go," said the creature. "I want 
2205 to be quiet. I want to split." 

Tom promised to let him alone, and he let go. 
"Why do you want to split?" said Tom. 

"Because my brothers and sisters have all 
split, and turned into beautiful creatures with 
2210 wings; and I want to split too. Don't speak 
to me. I am sure I shall split. I will split ! " 

Tom stood still, and watched him. And he 
swelled himself, and puffed, and stretched him- 
self out stiff, and at last — crack, puff, bang — he 
2215 opened all down his back, and then up to the 
top of his head. 

And out of his inside came the most slender, 
elegant, soft creature, as soft and smooth as 
Tom : but very pale and weak, like a little child 
2220 who has been ill a long time in a dark room. It 
moved its legs very feebly; and looked about it 
half ashamed, like a girl when she goes for the first 
time into a ballroom ; and then it began walking 
slowly up a grass stem to the top of the water. 



The Water-Babies 103 

Tom was so astonished that he never said a 2225 
word: but he stared with all his eyes. And he 
went up to the top of the water too, and peeped 
out to see what would happen. 

And as the creature sat in the warm bright 
sun, a wonderful change came over it. It grew 2230 
strong and firm; the most lovely colours began 
to show on its body, blue and yellow and black, 
spots and bars and rings ; out of its back rose four 
great wings of bright brown gauze; and its eyes 
grew so large that they filled all its head, and 2235 
shone like ten thousand diamonds. 

"Oh, you beautiful creature!" said Tom; and 
he put out his hand to catch it. 

But the thing whirred up into the air, and 
hung poised on its wings a moment, and then 2240 
settled down again by Tom quite fearless. 

"No!" it said, "you cannot catch me. I am 
a dragon-fly now, the king of all the flies; and 
I shall dance in the sunshine, and hawk over 
the river, and catch gnats, and have a beautiful 2245 
wife like myself. I know what I shall do. 
Hurrah!" And he flew away into the air, and 
began catching gnats. 

"Oh! come back, come back," cried Tom, 
"you beautiful creature. I have no one to play 2250 
with, and I am so lonely here. If you will but 
come back I will never try to catch you." 

"I don't care whether you do or not," said 



104 The Water-Babies 

the dragon-fly ; "for you can't. But when I have 

2255 had my dinner, and looked a little about this 
pretty place, I will come back, and have a little 
chat about all I have seen in my travels. Why, 
what a huge tree this is! and what huge leaves 
on it!" 

2260 It was only a big dock: but you know the 
dragon-fly had never seen any but little water- 
trees; starwort, and milfoil, and water-crowfoot, 
and such like; so it did look very big to 
him. Besides, he was very short-sighted, as all 

2265 dragon-flies are; and never could see a yard 

before his nose; any more than a great many 

other folks, who are not half as handsome as he. 

The dragon-fly did come back, and chatted 

away with Tom. He was a little conceited about 

2270 his fine colours and his large wings; but you 
know, he had been a poor dirty ugly creature 
all his life before ; so there were great excuses 
for him. He was very fond of talking about. all 
the wonderful things he saw in the trees and the 

2275 meadows ; and Tom liked to listen to him, for 
he had forgotten all about them. So in a little 
while they became great friends. 

And I am very glad to say, that Tom learned 
such a lesson that day, that he did not torment 

2280 creatures for a long time after. And then the 
caddises grew quite tame, and used to tell him 
strange stories about the way they built their 



The Water-Babies 105 

houses, and changed their skins, and turned at 
last into winged flies ; till Tom began to long to 
change his skin, and have wings like them some 2285 
day. 

And the trout and he made it up (for trout 
very soon forget if they have been frightened 
and hurt). So Tom used to play with them at 
hare and hounds, and great fun they had; and 22*0 
he used to try to leap out of the water, head 
over heels, as they did before a shower came on; 
but somehow he never could manage it. He 
liked most, though, to see them rising at the 
flies, as they sailed round and round under the 2295 
shadow of the great oak, where the beetles fell 
flop into the water, and the green caterpillars 
let themselves down from the boughs by silk 
ropes for no reason at all; and then changed 
their foolish minds for no reason at all either ; and 2300 
hauled themselves up again into the tree, roll- 
ing up the rope in a ball between their paws; 
which is a very clever rope-dancer's trick, and 
neither Blondin nor Leotard could do it : but why 
they should take so much trouble about it no 2305 
one can tell; for they cannot get their living, as 
Blondin and Leotard do, by trying to break 
their necks on a string. 

And very often Tom caught them just as they 
touched the water ; and caught the alder-flies, 2310 
and the caperers, and the cock-tailed duns and 



106 The Water-Babies 

spinners, yellow, and brown, and claret, and 
gray, and gave them to his friends the trout. 
Perhaps he was not quite kind to the flies; but 

2315 one must do a good turn to one's friends when 
one can. 

And at last he gave up catching even the 
flies; for he made acquaintance with one by 
accident and found him a very merry little 

2320 fellow. And this was the way it happened; and 
it is all quite true. 

He was basking at the top of the water one 
hot day in July, catching duns and feeding the 
trout, when he saw a new sort, a dark gray little 

2325 fellow with a brown head. He was a very little 
fellow indeed: but he made the most of himself, 
as people ought to do. He cocked up his head, 
and he cocked up his wings, and he cocked up 
his tail, and he cocked up the two whisks at his 

2330 tail-end, and, in short, he looked the cockiest 
little man of all little men. And so he proved 
to be; for instead of getting away, he hopped 
upon Tom's ringer, and sat there as bold as 
nine tailors; and he cried out in the tiniest, 

2335 shrillest, squeakiest little voice you ever heard— 
"Much obliged to you, indeed ; but I don't want 
it yet." 

"Want what?" said Tom, quite taken aback 
by his impudence. 

2340 "Your leg, which you are kind enough to 



The Water-Babies io*j 

hold out for me to sit on. I must just go and 
see after my wife for a few minutes Dear me! 
what a troublesome business a family is!" (though 
the idle little rogue did nothing at all, but left his 
poor wife to lay all the eggs by herself). " When 2345 
I come back, I shall be glad of it, if you'll be so 
good as to keep it sticking out just so" ; and off 
he flew. 

Tom thought him a very cool sort of person- 
age; and still more so, when, in five minutes 2350 
he came back, and said — "Ah, you were tired 
waiting? Well, your other leg will do as well." 

And he popped himself down on Tom's knee, 
and began chatting away in his squeaking 
voice. 2355 

"So you live under the water? It's a low 
place. I lived there for some time; and was 
very shabby and dirty. But I didn't choose 
that that should last. So I turned respectable, 
and came up to the top, and put on this gray23eo 
suit. It's a very business-like suit, you think, 
don't you?" 

"Very neat and quiet indeed," said Tom. 

"Yes, one must be quiet and neat and respect- 
able, and all that sort of thing for a little, 2365 
when one becomes a family man. But I'm tired 
of it, that's the truth. I've done quite enough 
business, I consider, in the last week, to last me 
my life. So I shall put on a ball dress, and go 



108 The Water-Babies 

2370 out and be a smart man, and see the gay world, 
and have a dance or two. Why shouldn't one 
be jolly if one can?" 

"And what will become of your wife?" 

"Oh! she is a very plain stupid creature, 

2375 and that's the truth; and thinks about nothing 

but eggs. If she chooses to come, why she may ; 

and if not, why I go without her; — and here 

I go." 

And, as he spoke, he turned quite pale, and 
2380 then quite white. 

"Why, you're ill!" said Tom. But he did 
not answer. 

"You're dead," said Tom, looking at him as 
he stood on his knee as white as a ghost. 
2385 "No, I ain't!" answered a little squeaking 
voice over his head. "This is me up here, in 
my ball-dress; and that's my skin. Ha, ha! you 
could not do such a trick as that!" 

And no more Tom could, nor Houdin, nor 
23»o Robin, nor Frikell, nor all the conjurors in the 
world. For the little rogue had jumped clean 
out of his own skin, and left it standing on 
Tom's knee, eyes, wings, legs, tail, exactly as if 
it had been alive. 
2395 "Ha, ha!" he said, and he jerked and skipped 
up and down, never stopping an instant, just 
as if he had St. Vitus's dance. "Ain't I a pretty 
fellow now?" 



The Water-Babies i°9 

And so he was; for his body was white, and 
his tail orange, and his eyes all the colours of a 2*00 
peacock's tail. And what was the oddest of all, 
the whisks at the end of his tail had grown five 
times as long as they were before. 

"Ah!" said he, "now I will see the gay world. 
My living won't cost me much, for I have no 2405 
mouth, you see, and no inside ; so I can never be 
hungry nor have the stomach-ache neither." 

No more he had. He had grown as dry and 
hard and empty as a quill, as such silly shallow- 
hearted fellows deserve to grow. 241 ° 

But, instead of being ashamed of his emptiness, 
he was quite proud of it, as a good many fine 
gentlemen are, and began flirting and flipping up 
and down, and singing— 

My wife shall dance, and I shall sing, 2415 

So merrily pass the day ; 
For I hold it for quite the wisest tning, 
To drive dull care away. 
And he danced up and down for three days 
and three nights, till he grew so tired, that he 2420 
tumbled into the water, and floated down. But 
what became of him Tom never knew, and he 
himself never minded; for Tom heard him sing- 
ing to the last, as he floated down- 
To drive dull care away -ay-ay! ww 
And if he did not care, why nobody else 
cared either. 



HO The Water-Babies 

But one day Tom had a new adventure. He 
was sitting on a water-lily leaf, he and his friend 

2430 the dragon-fly, watching the gnats dance. The 
dragon-fly had eaten as many as he wanted, and 
was sitting quite still and sleepy, for it was 
very hot and bright. The gnats (who did not 
care the least for their poor brothers' death) 

2435 danced a foot over his head quite happily, and 
a large black fly settled within an inch of his 
nose, and began washing his own face and comb- 
ing his hair with his paws: but the dragon-fly 
never stirred, and kept on chatting to Tom about 

2440 the times when he lived under the water. 

Suddenly, Tom heard the strangest noise up 
the stream; cooing, and grunting, and whining, 
and squeaking, as if you had put into a bag two 
stock-doves, nine mice, three guinea-pigs, and 

2445 a blind puppy, and left them there to settle 
themselves and make music. 

He looked up the water, and there he saw a 
sight as strange as the noise; a great ball rolling 
over and over down the stream, seeming one 

2450 moment of soft brown fur, and the next of shining 
glass: and yet it was not a ball; for sometimes 
it broke up and streamed away in pieces, and 
then it joined again; and all the while the noise 
came out of it louder and louder. 

2455 Tom asked the dragon-fly what it could be: 
but, of course, with his short sight, he could not 



The Water-Babies III 

even see it, though it was not ten yards away. 
So he took the neatest little header into the 
water, and started off to see for himself; and, 
when he came near, the ball turned out to be four 2460 
or five beautiful creatures, many times larger than 
Tom, who were swimming about, and rolling, 
and diving, and twisting, and wrestling, and 
cuddling, and kissing, and biting, and scratching, 
in the most charming fashion that ever was seen. 2455 
And if you don't believe me, you may go to the 
Zoological Gardens (for I am afraid that you won't 
see it nearer, unless, perhaps, you get up at five 
in the morning, and go down to Cordery's Moor, 
and watch by the great withy pollard which 2470 
hangs over the backwater, where the otters 
breed sometimes), and then say, if otters at play 
in the water are not the merriest, lithest, grace- 
fullest creatures you ever saw. 

But, when the biggest of them saw Tom, she 2475 
darted out from the rest, and cried in the water- 
language sharply enough, "Quick, children, here 
is something to eat, indeed!" and came at poor 
Tom, showing such a wicked pair of eyes, and 
such a set of sharp teeth in a grinning mouth, 24so 
that Tom, who had thought her very handsome, 
said to himself, Handsome is that handsome 
does, and slipped in between the water-lily roots 
as fast as he could, and then turned round and 
made faces at her. 2485 



112 The Water-Babies 

"Come out," said the wicked old otter, "or it 
will be worse for you." 

But Tom looked at her from between two 
thick roots, and shook them with all his might, 
2490 making horrible faces all the while, just as he 
used to grin through the railings at the old 
women, when he lived before. It was not quite 
well bred, no doubt ; but you know, Tom had not 
finished his education yet. 
2495 "Come away, children," said the otter in dis- 
gust, "it is not worth eating, after all. It is 
only a nasty eft, which nothing eats, not even 
those vulgar pike in the pond." 

"I am not an eft!" said Tom; "efts have tails." 
25oo ' ' You are an eft, ' ' said the otter, very positively ; 
"I see your two hands quite plain, and I know 
you have a tail." 

"I tell you I have not," said Tom. "Look 
here!" and he turned his pretty little self quite 
2505 round; and, sure enough, he had no more tail 
than you. 

The otter might have got out of it by saying 
that Tom was a frog: but, like a great many 
other people, when she had once said a thing, she 
2510 stood to it, right or wrong; so she answered: 
"I say you are an eft, and therefore you are, 
and not fit food for gentlefolk like me and my 
children. You may stay there till the salmon 
eat you (she knew the salmon would not, but 



The Water-Babies nj 

she wanted to frighten poor Tom). Ha! ha! 2515 
they will eat you, and we will eat them," and 
the otter laughed such a wicked cruel laugh — 
as you may hear them do sometimes; and the 
first time that you hear it you will probably think 
it is bogies. 2520 

"What are salmon?" asked Tom. 

"Fish, you eft, great fish, nice fish to eat. 
They are the lords of the fish, and we are lords 
of the salmon"; and she laughed again. "We 
hunt them up and down the pools, and drive 2525 
them up into a corner, the silly things; they are 
so proud, and bully the little trout, and the 
minnows, till they see us coming, and then they 
are so meek all at once ; and we catch them, but 
we disdain to eat them all; we just bite out 2530 
their soft throats and suck their sweet juice — 
Oh, so good!" — (and she licked her wicked 
lips) — "and then throw them away, and go and 
catch another. They are coming soon, children, 
coming soon; I can smell the rain coming up 2535 
off the sea, and then hurrah for a fresh, and sal- 
mon, and plenty of eating all day long." 

And the otter grew so proud that she turned 
head over heels twice, and then stood upright 
half out of the water, grinning like a Cheshire cat. 2540 

"And where do they come from?" asked 
Tom, who kept himself very close, for he was 
considerably frightened. 



H4 The Water -Babies 

"Out of the sea, eft, the great wide sea, where 

2545 they might stay and be safe if they liked. But 
out of the sea the silly things come, into the 
great river down below, and we come up to 
watch for them; and when they go down again 
we go down and follow them. And there we 

2550 fish for the bass and the pollock, and have jolly 
days along the shore, and toss and roll in the 
breakers, and sleep snug in the warm dry crags. 
Ah, that is a merry life too, children, if it were 
not for those horrid men." 

2555 "What are men?" asked Tom; but somehow 
he seemed to know before he asked. 

"Two-legged things, eft: and, now I come to 
look at you, they are actually something like 
you, if you had not a tail" (she was determined 

2560 that Tom should have a tail), "only a great deal 
bigger, worse luck for us; and they catch the 
fish, with hooks and lines, which get into our 
feet sometimes, and set pots along the rocks 
to catch lobsters. They speared my poor dear 

2565 husband as he went out to find something for 
me to eat. I was laid up among the crags then, 
and we were very low in the world, for the sea 
was so rough that no fish would come in shore. 
But they speared him, poor fellow, and I saw 

2570 them carrying him away upon a pole. Ah, he 
lost his life for your sakes, my children, poor 
dear obedient creature that he was." 



The Water -Babies 115 

And the otter grew so sentimental (for otters 
can be very sentimental when they choose, like 
a good many people who are both cruel and 2575 
greedy, and no good to anybody at all) that 
she sailed solemnly away down the burn, and 
Tom saw her no more for that time. And 
lucky it was for her that she did so ; for no sooner 
was she gone, than down the bank came seven 2580 
little rough terrier dogs, snuffing and yapping, 
and grubbing and splashing, in full cry after 
the otter. Tom hid among the water-lilies till 
they were gone ; for he could not guess that they 
were the water-fairies come to help him. 2595 

But he could not help thinking of what the 
otter had said about the great river and the 
broad sea. And, as he thought, he longed to go 
and see them. He could not tell why; but the 
more he thought, the more he grew discontented 2590 
with the narrow little stream in which he lived, 
and all his companions there; and wanted to get 
out into the wide wide world, and enjoy all the 
wonderful sights of which he was sure it was full. 

And once he set off to go down the stream. 2595 
But the stream was very low; and when he came 
to the shallows he could not keep under water, 
for there was no water left to keep under. So 
the sun burned his back and made him sick ; and 
he went back again and lay quiet in the pool*™ 
for a whole week more. 



Il6 The Water-Babies 

And then, on the evening of a very hot day, 
he saw a sight. 

He had been very stupid all day, and so had 

2605 the trout; for they would not move an inch to 
take a fly, though there were thousands on the 
water, but lay dozing at the bottom under the 
shade of the stones ; and Tom lay dozing too, and 
was glad to cuddle their smooth cool sides, for 

26io the water was quite warm and unpleasant. 

But toward evening it grew suddenly dark, 
and Tom looked up and saw a blanket of black 
clouds lying right across the valley above his 
head, resting on the crags right and left. He 

2615 felt not quite frightened, but very still; for 
everything was still. There was not a whisper 
of wind, nor a chirp of a bird to be heard; and 
next a few great drops of rain fell plop into the 
water, and one hit Tom on the nose, and made 

2620 him pop his head down quickly enough. 

And then the thunder roared, and the lightning 
flashed, and leapt across Vendale and back again, 
from cloud to cloud, and cliff to cliff, till the very 
rocks in the stream seemed to shake: and Tom 

2625 looked up at it through the water, and thought 
it the finest thing he ever saw in his life. 

But out of the water he dared not put his 
head; for the rain came down by bucketsful, 
and the hail hammered like shot on the stream, 

2680 and churned it into foam; and soon the stream 



The Water-Babies nj 

rose, and rushed down, higher and higher, and 
fouler and fouler, full of beetles, and sticks, and 
straws, and worms, and addle-eggs, and wood-lice, 
and leeches, and odds and ends, and omnium- 
gatherums, and this, that, and the other, enough 2635 
to fill nine museums. 

Tom could hardly stand against the stream, 
and hid behind a rock. But the trout did not; 
for out they rushed from among the stones, and 
began gobbling the beetles and leeches in the 26*0 
most greedy and quarrelsome way, and swimming 
about with great worms hanging out of their 
mouths, tugging and kicking to get them away 
from each other. 

And now, by the flashes of the lightning, Tom =6*5 
saw a new sight — all the bottom of the stream 
alive with great eels, turning and twisting along, 
all down stream and away. They had been 
hiding for weeks past in the cracks of the rocks, 
and in burrows in the mud; and Tom had hardly 2650 
ever seen them, except now and then at night: 
but now they were all out, and went hurrying 
past him so fiercely and wildly that he was 
quite frightened. And as they hurried past he 
could hear them say to each other, "We must 2655 
run, we must run. What a jolly thunderstorm! 
Down to the sea, down to the sea!" 

And then the otter came by with all her brood, 
twining and sweeping along as fast as the eels 



n8 The Water -Babies 

2660 themselves; and she spied Tom as she came by, 
and said: 

"Now is your time, eft, if you want to see the 
world. Come along, children, never mind those 
nasty eels: we shall breakfast on salmon to- 

2665 morrow. Down to the sea, down to the sea!" 

Then came a flash brighter than all the rest, 

and by the light of it — in the thousandth part 

of a second they were gone again — but he had 

seen them, he was certain of it — Three beautiful 

2670 little white girls, with their arms twined round 

each other's necks, floating down the torrent, 

as they sang, "Down to the sea, down to the sea!" 

"Oh stay! Wait for me!" cried Tom; but 

they were gone: yet he could hear their voices 

2675 clear and sweet through the roar of thunder 
and water and wind, singing as they died away, 
"Down to the sea!" 

"Down to the sea?" said Tom; "everything 
is going to the sea, and I will go too. Good-bye, 

2680 trout." But the trout were so busy gobbling 
worms that they never turned to answer him; 
so that Tom was spared the pain of bidding them 
farewell. 

And now, down the rushing- stream, guided by 

2685 the bright flashes of the storm; past tall birch- 
fringed rocks, which shone out one moment as 
clear as day, and the next were dark as night; 
past dark hovers under swirling banks, from 



The Water-Babies ng 

which great trout rushed out on Tom, thinking 
him to be good to eat, and turned back sulkily, zeoo 
for the fairies sent them home again with a 
tremendous scolding, for daring to meddle with 
a water-baby ; on through narrow strids and roar- 
ing cataracts, where Tom was deafened and 
blinded for a moment by the rushing waters ;26»5 
along deep reaches, where the white water-lilies 
tossed and flapped beneath the wind and hail; 
past sleeping villages; under dark bridge-arches, 
and away and away to the sea. And Tom could 
not stop, and did not care to stop; he would 2700 
see the great world below, and the salmon, and 
the breakers, and the wide wide sea. 

And when the daylight came, Tom found him- 
self out in the salmon river. 

And what sort of a river was it? Was it like 2705 
an Irish stream, winding through the brown 
bogs, where the wild ducks squatter up from 
among the white water-lilies, and the curlews 
flit to and fro, crying "Tullie-wheep, mind your 
sheep" ; and Dennis tells you strange stories of the 2710 
Peishtamore, the great bogy-snake which lies in 
the black peat pools, among the old pine-stems, 
and puts his head out at night to snap at the 
cattle as they come down to drink? — But you 
must not believe all that Dennis tells you, mind ; 2715 
for if you ask him : 

"Is there a salmon here, do you think, Dennis?" 



120 The Water-Babies 

"Is it salmon, thin, your honour manes? 
Salmon? Cartloads it is of thim, thin, an' ridg- 
2720 mens, shouldthering ache out of water, av' ye'd 
but the luck to see thim." 

Then you fish the pool all over, and never get 
a rise. 

"But there can't be a salmon here, Dennis! 
2725 and, if you'll but think, if one had come up last 
tide, he'd be gone to the higher pools by now." 

"Shure thin, and your honour's the thrue 

fisherman, and understands it all like a book. 

Why, ye spake as if ye'd known the wather a 

2730 thousand years! As I said, how could there be 

a fish here at all, just now?" 

"But you said just now they were shouldering 
each other out of water?" 

And then Dennis will look up at you with his 
«73o handsome, sly, soft, sleepy, good-natured, un- 
trustable, Irish gray eye, and answer with the 
prettiest smile: 

"Shure, and didn't I think your honour Would 
like a pleasant answer?" 
wo So you must not trust Dennis, because he is in 
the habit of giving pleasant answers : but, instead 
of being angry with him, you must remember 
that he is a poor Paddy, and knows no better ; so 
you must just burst out laughing; and then he 
w«will burst out laughing too, and slave for you, 
and trot about after you, and show you good sport 



The Water-Babies 121 

if he can— for he is an affectionate fellow, and as 
fond of sport as you are — and if he can't, tell you 
fibs instead, a hundred an hour; and wonder all 
the while why poor ould Ireland does not prosper 2750 
like England and Scotland, and some other places, 
where folk have taken up a ridiculous fancy 
that honesty is the best policy. 

Or was it like a Welsh salmon river, which is 
remarkable chiefly (at least, till this last year) 2755 
for containing no salmon, as they have been all 
poached out by the enlightened peasantry, to 
prevent the Cythrawl Sassenach (which means 
you, my little dear, your kith and kin, and signi- 
fies much the same as the Chinese Fan Quel)™ 
from coming bothering into Wales, with good 
tackle, and ready money, and civilisation, and 
common honesty, and other like things of which 
the Cymry stand in no need whatsoever? 

Or was it such a salmon stream as I trust you 2755 
will see among the Hampshire water-meadows 
before your hairs are gray, under the wise new 
fishing-laws ? — when Winchester apprentices shall 
covenant, as they did three hundred years ago, 
not to be made to eat salmon more than three 2770 
days a week; and fresh-run fish shall be as 
plentiful under Salisbury spire as they are in 
Holly-hole at Christchurch ; in the good time 
coming, when folks shall see that, of all Heaven's 
gifts of food, the one to be protected most carefully 2775 



122 The Water-Babies 

is that worthy gentleman salmon, who is generous 
enough to go down to the sea weighing five ounces, 
and to come back next year weighing five pounds, 
without having cost the soil or the state one 
2780 farthing? 

Or was it like a Scotch stream, such as Arthur 
Clough drew in his "Bothie": — 

Where over a ledge of granite 

Into a granite bason the amber torrent descended .... 

2785 Beautiful there for the colour derived from green 

rocks under; 

Beautiful most of all, where beads of foam uprising 

Mingle their clouds of white with the delicate hue 

of the stillness .... 
Cliff over cliff for its sides, with rowan and pendant 
birch boughs . . . 

Ah, my little man, when you are a big man, 

2790 and fish such a stream as that, you will hardly 

care, I think, whether she be roaring down in full 

spate, like coffee covered with scald cream, while 

the fish are swirling at your fly as an oar-blade 

swirls in a boat-race, or flashing up the cataract 

2795 like silver arrows, out of the fiercest of the foam ; 

or whether the fall be dwindled to a single thread, 

and the shingle below be as white and dusty as a 

turnpike road, while the salmon huddle together 

in one dark cloud in the clear amber pool, sleeping 

2800 away their time till the rain creeps back again 

off the sea. You will not care much, if you have 



The Water-Babies 123 

eyes and brains ; for you will lay down your rod 
contentedly, and drink in at your eyes the beauty 
of that glorious place ; and listen to the water-ouzel 
piping on the stones, and watch the yellow roes 2905 
come down to drink and look up at you with their 
great soft trustful eyes, as much as to say, "You 
could not have the heart to shoot at us?" And 
then, if you have sense, you will turn and talk 
to the great giant of a gilly who lies basking onssio 
the stone beside you. He will tell you no fibs, 
my little man; for he is a Scotchman, and fears 
God, and not the priest; and, as you talk with 
him, you will be surprised more and more at his 
knowledge, his sense, his humour, his courtesy 52315 
and you will find out — unless you have found it 
out before — that a man may learn from his Bible 
to be a more thorough gentleman than if he 
had been brought up in all the drawing-rooms 
in London. . 2820 

No. It was none of these, the salmon stream 
at Harthover. It was such a stream as you see 
in dear old Bewick; Bewick, who was born and 
bred upon them. A full hundred yards broad it 
was, sliding on from broad pool to broad shallow, 2825 
and broad shallow to broad pool, over great fields 
of shingle, under oak and ash coverts, past low 
cliffs of sandstone, past green meadows, and fair 
parks, and a great house of gray stone, and brown 
moors above, and here and there against the sky283o 



124 The Water-Babies 

the smoking chimney of a colliery. You must 
look at Bewick to see just what it was like, for 
he has drawn it a hundred times with the care 
and the love of a true North-countryman; and, 

2835 even if you do not care about the salmon 
river, you ought, like all good boys, to know your 
Bewick. 

At least, so old Sir John used to say, and very 
sensibly he put it too, as he was wont to do : 

2840. "If they want to describe a finished young 
gentleman in France, I hear, they say of him, '11 
sail son Rabelais.' But if I want to describe one 
in England, I say, 'He knows his Bewick.' And 
I think that is the higher compliment." 

2845 But Tom thought nothing about what the 
river was like. All his fancy was, to get down to 
the wide wide sea. 

And after a while he came to a place where the 
river spread out into broad still shallow reaches, 

2850 so wide that little Tom, as he put his head out of 
the water, could hardly see across. 

And there he stopped. He got a little fright- 
ened. "This must be the sea," he thought. 
"What a wide place it is ! If I go on into it I shall 

2855 surely lose my way, or some strange thing will 
bite me. I will stop here and look out for the 
otter, or the eels, or some one to tell me where 
I shall go." 

So he went back a little way, and crept into 



The Water-Babies I2 $ 

a crack of the rock, just where the river opened 2 8 eo 
out into the wide shallows, and watched for some 
one to tell him his way: but the otter and the 
eels were gone on miles and miles down the stream. 
There he waited, and slept too, for he was quite 
tired with his night's journey; and, when he2 8 e 5 
woke, the stream was clearing to a beautiful 
amber hue, though it was still very high. And 
after a while he saw a sight which made him 
jump up; for he knew in a moment it was one 
of the things which he had come to look for. 28 7o 

Such a fish! ten times as big as the biggest 
trout, and a hundred times as big as Tom, sculling 
up the stream past him, as easily as Tom had 
sculled down. 

Such a fish! shining silver from head to tail, 2375 
and here and there a crimson dot ; with a grand 
hooked nose and grand curling lip, and a grand 
bright eye, looking round him as proudly as a 
king, and surveying the water right and left as 
if all belonged to him. Surely he must be the2 88 o 
salmon, the king of all the fish. 

Tom was so frightened that he longed to creep 
into a hole ; but he need not have been ; for salmon 
are all true gentlemen, and, like true gentlemen, 
they look noble and proud enough, and yet, likens 
true gentlemen, they never harm or quarrel with 
any one, but go about their own business, and 
leave rude fellows to themselves. 



126 The Water-Babies 

The salmon looked at him full in the face, and 

2890 then went on without minding him, with a swish 
or two of his tail which made the stream boil 
again. And in a few minutes came another, and 
then four or five, and so on ; and all passed Tom, 
rushing and plunging up the cataract with 

2895 strong strokes of their silver tails, now and then 
leaping clean out of water and up over a rock, 
shining gloriously for a moment in the bright sun ; 
while Tom was so delighted that he could have 
watched them all day long. 

2900 And at last one came up bigger than all 
the rest; but he came slowly, and stopped, and 
looked back, and seemed very anxious and busy. 
And Tom saw that he was helping another sal- 
mon, an especially handsome one, who had not 

2905 a single spot upon it, but was clothed in pure 
silver from nose to tail. 

"My dear," said the great fish to his com- 
panion, "you really look dreadfully tired, and you 
must not over-exert yourself at first. Do rest 

2910 yourself behind this rock," and he shoved her 

gently with his nose, to the rock where Tom sat. 

You must know that this was the salmon's 

wife. For salmon, like other true gentlemen, 

always choose their lady, and love her, and are 

2915 true to her, and take care of her, and work for 
her, and fight for her, as every true gentleman- 
ought; and are not like vulgar chub and roach 




"The salmon looked at him full in the face 1 
[127J 



128 The Water-Babies 

and pike, who have no high feelings, and take no 
care of their wives. 

2920 Then he saw Tom, and looked at him very 
fiercely one moment, as if he was going to bite 
him. 

"What do you want here?" he said, very 
fiercely. 

2925 "Oh, don't hurt me!" cried Tom. "I only 
want to look at you; you are so handsome." 

"Ah?" said the salmon, very stately but very 
civilly. "I really beg your pardon; I see what 
you are, my little dear. I have met one or two 

2930 creatures like you before, and found them very 
agreeable and well-behaved. Indeed, one of 
them showed me a great kindness lately, which 
I hope to be able to repay. I hope we shall not 
be in your way here. As soon as this lady is 

2935 rested, we shall proceed on our journey." 
What a well-bred old salmon he was! 
"So you have seen things like me before?" 
asked Tom. 

"Several times, my dear. Indeed, it was only 

2940 last night that one at the river's mouth came and 
warned me and my wife of some new stake-nets 
which had got into the stream, I cannot tell how, 
since last winter, and showed us the way round 
them, in the most charmingly obliging way." 

29« "So there are babies in the sea?" cried Tom, 
and clapped his little hands. "Then I shall have 



The Water-Babies 12Q 

some one to play with there? How delightful!" 
"Were there no babies up this stream?" asked 
the lady salmon. 

"No! and I grew so lonely. I thought I saw 2950 
three last night; but they were gone in an in- 
stant, down to the sea. So I went too ; for I had 
nothing to play with but caddises and dragon- 
flies and trout." 

"Ugh!" cried the lady, "what low company !" 2955 
"My dear, if he has been in low company, he 
has certainly not learnt their low manners," 
said the salmon. 

"No, indeed, poor little dear: but how sad 
for him to live among such people as caddises, 2900 
who have actually six legs, the nasty things ; and 
dragon-flies, too! why they are not even good 
to eat; for I tried them once, and they are all 
hard and empty; and, as for trout, every one 
knows what they are." Whereon she curled up 2965 
her lip, and looked dreadfully scornful, while her 
husband curled up his too, till he looked as 
proud as Alcibiades. 

"Why do you dislike the trout so?" asked Tom. 
"My dear, we do not even mention them, if we29?o 
can help it ; for I am sorry to say they are relations 
of ours who do us no credit. A great many years 
ago they were just like us: but they were so lazy, 
and cowardly, and greedy, that instead of going 
down to the sea every year to see the world and 2975 



130 The Water-Babies 

grow strong and fat, they chose to stay and poke 
about in the little streams and eat worms and 

4 

grubs; and they are very properly punished for 
it; for they have grown ugly and brown and 

2980 spotted and small; and are actually so degraded 

in their tastes, that they will eat our children/' 

"And then they pretend to scrape acquaintance 

with us again," said the lady. "Why, I have 

actually known one of them propose to a lady 

2»85 salmon, the little impudent little creature." 

"I should hope," said the gentleman, "that there 
are very few ladies of our race who would degrade 
themselves by listening to such a creature for an 
instant. If I saw such a thing happen, I should 

2»8o consider it my duty to put them both to death 
upon the spot." So the old salmon said, like an 
old blue-blooded hidalgo of Spain; and what is 
more, he would have done it too. For you must 
know, no enemies are so bitter against each 

2995 other as those who are of the same race; and a 
salmon looks on a trout, as some great folks look 
on some little folks, as something just too much 
like himself to be tolerated. 



Sweet is the lore which Nature brings ; 
Our meddling intellect 
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things 
We murder to dissect. 

Enough of science and of art : 

Close up these barren leaves; 

Come forth, and bring with you a heart 

That watches and receives. 

Wordsworth. 



3000 



3005 



CHAPTER IV 

SO the salmon went up, after Tom had 
warned them of the wicked old otter ; and 
Tom went down, but slowly and cautiously, 
coasting along the shore. He was many days 
about it, for it was many miles down to the sea ; 
and perhaps he would never have found his way, 
if the fairies had not guided him, without his 
seeing their fair faces, or feeling their gentle 
hands. 

And, as he went, he had a very strange adven- 
ture. It was a clear still September night, and 
the moon shone so brightly down through the 3010 
water, that he could not sleep, though he shut 
his eyes as tight as possible. So at last he came 
up to the top, and sat upon a little point of 
rock, and looked up at the broad yellow moon, 
and wondered what she was, and thought that 3015 
she looked at him. And he watched the moon- 
light on the rippling river, and the black heads 
of the firs, and the silver-frosted lawns, and 
listened to the owl's hoot, and the snipe's bleat, 
and the fox's bark, and the otter's laugh; and 3020 
smelt the soft perfume of the birches, and the 
wafts of heather honey off the grouse moor far 
above; and felt very happy, though he could 
not well tell why. You, of course, would have 
been very cold sitting there on a September night, 3025 

[133] 



134 The Water-Babies 

without the least bit of clothes on your wet 
back ; but Tom was a water-baby, and therefore 
felt cold no more than a fish. 

Suddenly, he saw a beautifu. sight. A bright 
3030 red light moved along the river-side, and threw 
down into the water a long tap-root of flame. 
Tom, curious little rogue that he was, must needs 
go and see what it was ; so he swam to the shore, 
and met the light as it stopped over a shallow run 
3035 at the edge of a low rock. 

And there, underneath the light, lay five or six 
great salmon, looking up at the flame with their 
great goggle eyes, and wagging their tails, as if 
they were very much pleased at it. 
3040 Tom came to the top, to look at this wonderful 
light nearer, and made a splash. 
And he heard a voice say: 
"There was a fish rose." 
He did not know what the words meant: but 
3045 he seemed to know the sound of them, and to 
know the voice which spoke them; and he saw 
on the bank three great two-legged creatures, 
one of whom held the light, flaring and sputtering, 
and another a long pole. And he knew that they 
3050 were men, and was frightened, and crept into a 
hole in the rock, from which he could see what 
went on. 

The man with the torch bent down over the 
water, and looked earnestly in ; and then he said : 



The Water-Babies 



135 



"Tak' that muckle fellow, lad; he's ower fifteen 3055 
punds; and haud your hand steady." 

Tom felt that there was some danger coming, 
and longed to warn the foolish salmon, who kept 
staring up at the light as if he was bewitched. 
But before he could make up his mind, down came 3060 
the pole through the water ; there was a fearful 
splash and struggle, and Tom saw that the poor 
salmon was speared right through, and was lifted 
out of the water. 

And then, from behind, there sprang on these 3oes 
three men three other men; and there were 
shouts, and blows, and words which Tom recol- 
lected to have heard before; and he shuddered 
and turned sick at them now, for he felt somehow 
that they were strange, and ugly, and wrong, 3070 
and horrible. And it all began to come back to 
him. They were men; and they were fighting; 
savage, desperate, up-and-down fighting, such 
as Tom had seen too many times before. 

And he stopped his little ears, and longed to 3075 
swim away; and was very glad that he was a 
water-baby, and had nothing to do any more with 
horrid dirty men, with foul clothes on their backs, 
and foul words on their lips; but he dared not 
stir out of his hole : while the rock shook over hissoso 
head with the trampling and struggling of the 
keepers and the poachers. 

All of a sudden there was a tremendous splash, 



Ij6 The Water-Babies 

and a frightful flash, and a hissing, and all was still. 
3085 For into the water, close to Tom, fell one of the 
men; he who held the light in his hand. Into 
the swift river he sank, and rolled over and over 
in the current. Tom heard the men above run 
along, seemingly looking for him ; but he drifted 
3090 down into the deep hole below, and there lay quite 
still, and they could not find him. 

Tom waited a long time, till all was quiet ; and 

then he peeped out, and saw the man lying. At 

last he screwed up his courage and swam down 

3095 to him. "Perhaps," he thought, "the water has 

made him fall asleep, as it did me." 

Then he went nearer. He grew more and 

more curious, he could not tell why. He must 

go and look at him. He would go very quietly, 

3100 of course; so he swam round and round him, 

closer and closer ; and, as he did not stir, at last 

he came quite close and looked him in the face. 

The moon shone so bright that Tom could 

see every feature ; and, as he saw, he recollected, 

3105 bit by bit, it was his old master, Grimes. 

Tom turned tail, and swam away as fast as he 
could. 

"Oh dear me!" he thought, "now he will turn 
into a water-baby. What a nasty troublesome 
3iio one he will be ! And perhaps he will find me out, 
and beat me again." 

So he went up the river again a little way, and 



The Water-Babies ioy 

lay there the rest of the night under an alder root ; 
but, when morning came, he longed to go down 
again to the big pool, and see whether Mr. Grimes 3115 
had turned into a water-baby yet. 

So he went very carefully, peeping round all 
the rocks, and hiding under all the roots. Mr. 
Grimes lay there still; he had not turned into a 
water-baby. In the afternoon Tom went back 3120 
again. He could not rest till he had found out 
what had become of Mr. Grimes. But this time 
Mr. Grimes was gone ; and Tom made up his mind 
that he was turned into a water-baby. 

He might have made himself easy, poor little 3125 
man; Mr. Grimes did not turn into a water- 
baby, or anything like one at all. But he did not 
make himself easy ; and a long time he was fearful 
lest he should meet Grimes suddenly in some 
deep pool. He could not know that the fairies 3130 
had carried him away, and put him, where they 
put everything which falls into the water, exactly 
where it ought to be. But, do you know, what 
had happened to Mr. Grimes had such an effect 
on him that he never poached salmon any more. 3135 
And it is quite certain that, when a man becomes 
a confirmed poacher, the only way to cure him is 
to put him under water for twenty-four hours, 
like Grimes. So when you grow to be a big man, 
do you behave ; as all honest fellows should; and 3140 
never touch a fish or a head of game which belongs 



Ij8 The Water-Babies 

to another man without his express leave; and 
then people will call you a gentleman, and treat 
you like one; and perhaps give you good sport: 

3145 instead of hitting you into the river, or calling you 
a poaching snob. 

Then Tom went on down, for he was afraid of 
staying near Grimes: and as he went, all the 
vale looked sad. The red and yellow leaves 

3iso showered down into the river ; the flies and beetles 
were all dead and gone; the chill autumn fog 
lay low upon the hills, and sometimes spread 
itself so thickly on the river that he could not 
see his way. But he felt his way instead, folio w- 

3155 ing the flow of the stream, day after day, past 
great bridges, past boats and barges, past the 
great town, with its wharfs, and mills, and tall 
smoking chimneys, and ships which rode at 
anchor in the stream; and now and then he ran 

3i6o against their hawsers, and wondered what they 
were, and peeped out, and saw the sailors loung- 
ing on board smoking their pipes; and ducked 
under again, for he was terribly afraid of being 
caught by man and turned into a chimney-sweep 

3i65 once more. He did not know that the fairies were 
close to him always, shutting the sailors' eyes 
lest they should see him, and turning him aside 
from millraces, and sewer-mouths, and all foul 
and dangerous things. Poor little fellow, it was 

3170 a dreary journey for him; and more than once 



The Water-Babies ijg 

he longed to be back in Vendale, playing with the 
trout in the bright summer sun. But it could 
not be. What has been once can never come 
over again. And people can be little babies, even 
water-babies, only once in their lives. 3175 

Besides, people who make up their minds to go 
and see the world, as Tom did, must needs find 
it a weary journey. Lucky for them if they do 
not lose heart and stop half-way, instead of going 
on bravely to the end as Tom did. For then they 3iso 
will remain neither boys nor men, neither fish, 
flesh, nor good red-herring : having learnt a great 
deal too much, and yet not enough; and sown 
their wild oats, without having the advantage 
of reaping them. 3185 

But Tom was always a brave, determined, little 
English bull-dog, who never knew when he was 
beaten ; and on and on he held, till he saw a long 
way off the red buoy through the fog. And then 
he found to his surprise the stream turned round, 3190 
and running up inland. 

It was the tide, of course: but Tom knew 
nothing of the tide. He only knew that in a 
minute more the water, which had been fresh, 
turned salt all round him. And then there came 3195 
a change over him. He felt as strong, and light, 
and fresh, as if his veins had run champagne; 
and gave, he did not know why, three skips out 
of the water, a yard high, and head over heels, 



140 The Water-Babies 

3200 just as the salmon do when they first touch the 
noble rich salt water, which, as some wise men 
tell us, is the mother of all living things. 

He did not care now for the tide being against 
him. The red buoy was in sight, dancing in the 

3205 open sea; and to the buoy he would go, and to 
it he went. He passed great shoals of bass and 
mullet, leaping and rushing in after the shrimps, 
but he never heeded them, or they him ; and once 
he passed a great black shining seal, who was com- 

3210 ing in after the mullet. The seal put his head and 
shoulders out of water, and stared at him, looking 
exactly like a fat old greasy negro with a gray 
pate. And Tom, instead of being frightened, 
said, "How d'ye do, sir; what a beautiful place 

3215 the sea is!" And the old seal, instead of trying 
to bite him, looked at him with his soft sleepy 
winking eyes, and said, "Good tide to you, my 
little man; are you looking for your brothers 
and sisters? I passed them all at play outside." 

3220 "Oh, then," said Tom, "I shall have playfellows 
at last," and he swam on to the buoy, and got 
upon it (for he was quite out of breath) and sat 
there, and looked round for water-babies: but 
there were none to be seen. 

3225 The sea-breeze came in freshly with the tide 
and blew the fog away; and the little waves 
danced for joy around the buoy, and the old 
buoy danced with them. The shadows of the 



The Water -Babies 141 

clouds ran races over the bright blue bay, and 
yet never caught each other up; and the breakers 3230 
plunged merrily upon the wide white sands, and 
jumped up over the rocks, to see what the green 
fields inside were like, and tumbled down and 
broke themselves all to pieces, and never minded 
it a bit, but mended themselves and jumped up 3235 
again. And the terns hovered over Tom like 
huge white dragon-flies with black heads, and the 
gulls laughed like girls at play, and the sea-pies, 
with their red bills and legs, flew to and fro 
from shore to shore, and whistled sweet and 3240 
wild. And Tom looked and looked, and listened ; 
and he would have been very happy, if he could 
only have seen the water-babies. Then when 
the tide turned, he left the buoy, and swam 
round and round in search of them; but in 3245 
vain. Sometimes he thought he heard them 
laughing: but it was only the laughter of the 
ripples. And sometimes he thought he saw 
them at the bottom: but it was only white and 
pink shells. And once he was sure he had found 3250 
one, for he saw two bright eyes peeping out of the 
sand. So he dived down, and began scraping 
the sand away, and cried, "Don't hide; I do 
want some one to play with so much!" And 
out jumped a great turbot with his ugly eyes 3255 
and mouth all awry, and flopped away along the 
bottom, knocking poor Tom over. And he sat 



142 The Water-Babies 

down at the bottom of the sea, and cried salt 
tears from sheer disappointment. 

3260 To have come all this way, and faced so many 
dangers, and yet to find no water-babies! How 
hard! Well, it did seem hard: but people, even 
little babies, cannot have all they want without 
waiting for it, and working for it too, my little 

3265 man, as you will find out some day. 

And Tom sat upon the buoy long days, long 
weeks, looking out to sea, and wondering when 
the water-babies would come back ; and yet they 
never came. 

3270 Then he began to ask all the strange things 
which come in out of the sea if they had seen 
any ; and some said "Yes," and some said nothing 
at all. 

He asked the bass and the pollock; but they 

3275 were so greedy after the shrimps that they did 
not care to answer him a word. 

Then there came in a whole fleet of purple 
sea-snails, floating along, each on a sponge full 
of foam, and Tom said, "Where do you come 

3280 from, you pretty creatures? and have you seen 
the water-babies?" 

And the sea-snails answered, "Whence we 
come we know not ; and whither we are going, 
who can tell? We float out our life in the 

3285 mid-ocean, with the warm sunshine above our 
heads, and the warm gulf -stream below ; and that 



The Water-Babies 



143 



is enough for us. Yes; perhaps we have seen 
the water-babies. We have seen many strange 
things as we. sailed along." And they floated 
away, the happy stupid things, and all went 3290 
ashore upon the sands. 

Then there came in a great lazy sunfish, as big 
as a fat pig cut in half; and he seemed to have 
been cut in half too, and squeezed in a clothes- 
press till he was flat; but to all his big body and 3295 
big fins he had only a little rabbit's mouth, no 
bigger than Tom's; and, when Tom questioned 
him, he answered in a little squeaky feeble voice : 
"I'm sure I don't know; I've lost my way. I 
meant to go to the Chesapeake, and I'm afraid 3300 
I've got wrong somehow. Dear me! it was all 
by following that pleasant warm water. I'm sure 
I've lost my way." 

And, when Tom asked him again, he could 
only answer, "I've lost my way. Don't talk to 3305 
me; I want to think." 

But, like a good many other people, the more 
he tried to think the less he could think; and 
Tom saw him blundering about all day, till the 
coast-guardsmen saw his big fin above the water, 3310 
and rowed out, and struck a boat-hook into him, 
and took him away. They took him up to the 
town and showed him for a penny a head, and 
made a good day's work of it. But of course 
Tom did not know that. 3315 



144 The Water-Babies 

Then there came by a shoal of porpoises, roll- 
ing as they went — papas, and mammas, and 
little children — and all quite smooth and shiny, 
because the fairies French-polish them every 

3320 morning; and they sighed so softly as they came 
by, that Tom took courage to speak to them: 
but all they answered was, "Hush, hush, hush"; 
for that was all they had learnt to say. 

And then there came a shoal of basking sharks, 

3325 some of them as long as a boat, and Tom was 
frightened at them. But they were very lazy 
good-natured fellows, not greedy tyrants, like 
white sharks and blue sharks and ground sharks 
and hammer-heads, who eat men, or saw-fish 

3330 and threshers and ice-sharks, who hunt the poor 
old whales. They came and rubbed their great 
sides against the buoy, and lay basking in the 
sun with their backfms out of water ; and winked 
at Tom: but he never could get them to speak. 

3335 They had eaten so many herrings that they were 
quite stupid; and Tom was glad when a collier 
brig came by and frightened them all away; for 
they did smell most horribly, certainly, and he 
had to hold his nose tight as long as they were 

3340 there. 

And then there came by a beautiful creature, 
like a ribbon of pure silver with a sharp head and 
very long teeth ; but it seemed* very sick and sad. 
Sometimes it rolled helpless on its side ; and then 



The Water-Babies 145 

it dashed away glittering like white fire ; and then 3345 
it lay sick again and motionless. 

1 ' Where do you come from ? ' ' asked Tom. ' 'And 
why are you so sick and sad?" 

"I come from the warm Carolinas, and the 
sandbanks fringed with pines; where the great 3350 
owl-rays leap and flap, like giant bats, upon the 
tide. But I wandered north and north, upon 
the treacherous warm gulf-stream, till I met with 
the cold icebergs, afloat in the mid ocean. So I 
got tangled among the icebergs, and chilled with 3355 
their frozen breath. But the water-babies helped 
me from among them, and set me free again. 
And now I am mending every day ; but I am very 
sick and sad ; and perhaps I shall never get home 
again to play with the owl-rays any more." 3360 

"Oh!" cried Tom. "And you have seen water- 
babies? Have you seen any near here?" 

"Yes; they helped me again last night, or I 
should have been eaten by a great black por- 
poise." 3365 

How vexatious! The water-babies close to 
him, and yet he could not find one. 

And then he left the buoy, and used to go along 
the sands and round the rocks, and come out 
in the night — like the forsaken Merman in Mr. 3370 
Arnold's beautiful, beautiful poem, which you 
must learn by heart some day — and sit upon a 
point of rock, among the shining sea-weeds, in the 



1^6 The Water-Babies 

low October tides, and cry and call for the water- 

3475 babies ; but he never heard a voice call in return. 
And at last, with his fretting and crying, he 
grew quite lean and thin. 

But one day among the rocks he found a play- 
fellow. It was not a water-baby, alas ! but it was 

3380 a lobster; and a very distinguished lobster he 
was ; for he had live barnacles on his claws, which 
is a great mark of distinction in lobsterdom, and 
no more to be bought for money than a good con- 
science or the Victoria Cross. 

3385 Tom had never seen a lobster before; and he 
was mightily taken with this one ; for he thought 
him the most curious, odd, ridiculous creature 
he had ever seen ; and there he was not far wrong ; 
for all the ingenious men, and all the scientific 

3390 men, and all the fanciful men, in the world, with 
all the old German bogy-painters into the bargain, 
could never invent, if all their wits were boiled 
into one, anything so curious, and so ridiculous, 
as a lobster 

3395 He had one claw knobbed and the other jagged ; 
and Tom delighted in watching him hold on to the 
seaweed with his knobbed claw, while he cut up 
salads with his jagged one, and then put them into 
his mouth, after smelling at them, like a monkey. 

3400 And always the little barnacles threw out their 
casting-nets and swept the water, and came in 
for their share of whatever there was for dinner. 




'One day among the rocks he found a playfellow" 
[147] 



148 The Water-Babies 

But Tom was most astonished to see how he 
fired himself off — snap! like the leap-frogs which 

3405 you make out of a goose's breast-bone. Certainly 
he took the most wonderful shots, and back- 
wards, too. For, if he wanted to go into a narrow 
crack ten yards off, what do you think he did? 
If he had gone in head foremost, of course he 

3410 could not have turned round. So he used to turn 
his tail to it, and lay his long horns, which carry 
his sixth sense in their tips (and nobody knows 
what that sixth sense is), straight down his back 
to guide him, and twist his eyes back till they 

3415 almost came out of their sockets, and then made 
ready, present, fire, snap! — and away he went, 
pop into the hole; and peeped out and twiddled 
his whiskers, as much as to say, "You couldn't 
do that." 

3420 Tom asked him about water-babies. "Yes," 
he said. He had seen them often. But he did 
not think much of them. They were meddlesome 
little creatures, that went about helping fish and 
shells which got into scrapes. Well, for his part, 

3425 he should be ashamed to be helped by little soft 
creatures that had not even a shell on their backs. 
He had lived quite long enough in the world to 
take care of himself. 

He was a conceited fellow, the old lobster, and 

3430 not very civil to Tom ; and you will hear how 
he had to alter his mind before he was done, as 



The Water-Babies 149 

conceited people generally have. But he was so 
funny, and Tom so lonely, that he could not quar- 
rel with him ; and they used to sit in holes in the 
rocks, and chat for hours. 3435 

And about this time there happened to Tom 
a very strange and important adventure — so 
important, indeed, that he was very near never 
rinding the water-babies at all; and I am sure 
you would have been sorry for that. 3440 

I hope that you have not forgotten the little 
white lady all this while. At least, here she 
comes, looking like a clean white good little 
darling, as she always was, and always will be. 
For it befell in the pleasant short December 3445 
days, when the wind always blows from the south- 
west, till Old Father Christmas comes and spreads 
the great white table-cloth, ready for little boys 
and girls to give the birds their Christmas dinner 
of crumbs — it befell (to go on) in the pleasant 3450 
December days, that Sir John was so busy 
hunting that nobody at home could get a word 
out of him. Four days a week he hunted, and 
very good sport he had; and the other two he 
went to the bench and the board of guardians, 3455 
and very good justice he did; and, when he got 
home in time, he dined at five ; for he hated this 
absurd new fashion of dining at eight in the hunt- 
ing season, which forces a man to make interest 
with the footman for cold beef and beer as soon34eo 



I jo The Water-Babies 

as he comes in, and so spoil his appetite, and then 
sleep in an arm-chair in his bedroom, all stiff and 
tired, for two or three hours before he can get 
his dinner like a gentleman. And do you be like 

3465 Sir John, my dear little man, when you are your 
own master ; and, if you want either to read hard 
or ride hard, stick to the good old Cambridge 
hours of breakfast at eight and dinner at five; 
by which you may get two days' work out of one. 

3470 But, of course, if you find a fox at three in the 
afternoon and run him till dark, and leave off 
twenty miles from home, why you must wait for 
your dinner till you can get it, as better men 
than you have done. Only see that, if you go 

3475 hungry, your horse does not; but give him his 
warm gruel and beer, and take him gently home, 
remembering that good horses don't grow on the 
hedge like blackberries. 

It befell (to go on a second time) that Sir John, 

3480 hunting all day, and dining at five, fell asleep 
every evening, and snored so terribly that all the 
windows in Harthover shook, and the soot fell 
down the chimneys. Whereon My Lady, being 
no more able to get conversation out of him than 

3485 a song out of a dead nightingale, determined to 
go off and leave him, and the doctor, and Captain 
Swinger the agent, to snore in concert every 
evening to their hearts' content. So she started 
for the seaside with all the children, in order to 



The Water Babies 151 

put herself and them into condition by mild 3490 
applications of iodine. She might as well have 
stayed at home and used Parry's liquid horse- 
blister, for there was plenty of it in the stables; 
and then 6he would have saved her money, and 
saved the chance, also, of making all the children 3495 
ill instead of well (as hundreds are made), by 
taking them to some nasty smelling undrained 
lodging, and then wondering how they caught 
scarlatina and diphtheria: but people won't be 
wise enough to understand that till they are dead 3500 
of bad smells, and then it will be too late ; besides, 
you see, Sir John did certainly snore very loud. 

But where she went to nobody must know, for 
fear young ladies should begin to fancy that there 
are water-babies there! and so hunt and ho wk 3505 
after them (besides raising the price of lodgings), 
and keep them in aquariums, as the ladies at 
Pompeii (as you may see by the paintings) used 
to keep Cupids in cages. But nobody ever heard 
that they starved the Cupids, or let them die 3510 
of dirt and neglect, as English young ladies do 
by the poor sea-beasts. So nobody must know 
where My Lady went. Letting water-babies die 
is as bad as taking singing birds' eggs ; for, though 
there are thousands, ay, millions, of both of them 3515 
in the world, yet there is not one too many. 

Now it befell that, on the very shore, and over 
the very rocks, where Tom was sitting with his 



152 The Water-Babies 

friend the lobster, there walked one day the 

J520 little white lady, Ellie herself, and with her a very 
wise man indeed — Professor Ptthmllnsprts. 

His mother was a Dutchwoman, and therefore 
he was born at Curasao (of course you have learnt 
your geography, and therefore know why) ; and 

3525 his father a Pole, and therefore he was brought 
up at Petropaulowski (of course you have learnt 
your modern politics, and therefore know why) : 
but for all that he was as thorough an Englishman 
as ever coveted his neighbour's goods. And his 

3530 name, as I said, was Professor Ptthmllnsprts, 

which is a very ancient and noble Polish name. 

He was, as I said, a very great naturalist, and 

chief professor of Necrobioneopalceonthydrochthon- 

anthropopithekology in the new university which 

3535 the king of the Cannibal Islands had founded; 
and, being a member of the Acclimatisation 
Society, he had come here to collect all the 
nasty things which he could find on the coast of 
England, and turn them loose round the Cannibal 

3540 Islands, because they had not nasty things enough 
there to eat what they left. 

But he was a very worthy kind good-natured 
little old gentleman; and very fond of children 
(for he was not the least a cannibal himself) ; and 

3545 very good to all the world as long as it was good 
to him. Only one fault he had, which cock-robins 
have likewise, as you may see if you look out of the 



The Water-Babies 153 

nursery window— that, when any one else found a 
curious worm, he would hop round them, and peck 
them, and set up his tail, and bristle up his feathers, 3550 
just as a cock-robin would ; and declare that he 
found the worm first ; and that it was his worm ; 
and, if not, that then it was not a worm at all. 

He had met Sir John at Scarborough, or 
Fleetwood, or somewhere or other (if you don't 3555 
care where, nobody else does), and had made 
acquaintance with him, and become very fond 
of his children. Now, Sir John knew nothing 
about sea-cocky olybirds, and cared less, provided 
the fishmonger sent him good fish for dinner jsseo 
and My Lady knew as little: but she thought it 
proper that the children should know something. 
For in the stupid old times, you must understand, 
children were taught to know one thing, and to 
know it well; but in these enlightened new times 3565 
they are taught to know a little about everything, 
and to know it all ill; which is a great deal 
pleasanter and easier, and therefore quite right. 

So Ellie and he were walking on the rocks, and 
he was showing her about one in ten thousand 3570 
of all the beautiful and curious things which are 
to be seen there. But little Ellie was not satis- 
fied with them at all. She liked much better 
to play with live children, or even with dolls, 
which she could pretend were alive ; and at last 3575 
she said honestly, "I don't care about all these 



Ij4 The Water-Babies 

things, because they can't play with me, or talk 
to me. If there were little children now in the 
water, as there used to be, and I could see them, 

3580 1 should like that." 

"Children in the water, you strange little 
duck?" said the professor. 

"Yes," said Ellie. "I know there used to be 
children in the water, and mermaids too, and 

3585 mermen. I saw them all in a picture at home, 
of a beautiful lady sailing in a car drawn by 
dolphins, and babies flying round her, and one 
sitting in her lap; and the mermaids swim- 
ming and playing, and the mermen trumpeting 

3590 on conch-shells; and it is called 'The Triumph of 
Galatea"; and there is a burning mountain in 
the picture behind. It hangs on the great stair- 
case, and I have looked at it ever since I was a 
baby, and dreamt about it a hundred times; and 

3595 it is so beautiful, that it must be true." 

But the professor had not the least notion of 
allowing that things were true, merely because 
people thought them beautiful. For at that 
rate, he said, the Baltas would be quite right in 

36oo thinking it a fine thing to eat their grandpapas, 
because they thought it an ugly thing to put 
them underground. The professor, indeed, went 
further, and held that no man was forced to 
believe anything to be true, but what he could 

3605 see, hear, taste, or handle. 



The Water-Babies 13 c 

He held very strange theories about a good 
many things. He had even got up once at the 
British Association, and declared that apes had 
hippopotamus majors in their brains just as 
men have. Which was a shocking thing to say;aeio 
for, if it were so, what would become of the faith, 
hope, and charity of immortal millions? You 
may think that there are other more impor- 
tant differences between you and an ape, such 
as being able to speak, and make machines, andaeis 
know right from wrong, and say your prayers, 
and other little matters of that kind; but that 
is a child's fancy, my dear. Nothing is to be 
depended on but the great hippopotamus test. 
If you have a hippopotamus major in your brain, 3620 
you are no ape, though you had four hands, no 
feet, and were more apish than the apes of all 
aperies. But if a hippopotamus major is ever 
discovered in one single ape's brain, nothing 
will save your great-great-great-great-great-great- 3625 
great-great - great-great - great- greater- greatest - 
grandmother from having been an ape too. No, 
my dear little man ; always remember that the one 
true, certain, final, and all-important difference 
between you and an ape is, that you have asreo 
hippopotamus major in your brain, and it has 
none ; and that, therefore, to discover one in its 
brain will be a very wrong and dangerous thing, 
at which every one will be very much shocked, as 



1^6 The Water-Babies 

3635 we may suppose they were at the professor. — 
Though really, after all, it don't much matter; 
because — as Lord Dundreary and others would 
put it — nobody but men have hippopotamuses 
in their brains; so, if a hippopotamus was dis- 

3640 covered in an ape's brain, why it would not 
be one, you know, but something else. 

But the professor had gone, I am sorry to say, 
even further than that; for he had read at the 
British Association at Melbourne, Australia, - in 

3645 the year 1999, a paper which assured every one 
who found himself the better or wiser for the 
news, that there were not, never had been, and 
could not be, any rational or half -rational beings 
except men, anywhere, anywhen, or anyhow; 

3650 that nymphs, satyrs, fauns, inui, dwarfs, trolls, 
elves, gnomes, fairies, brownies, nixes, wilis, 
kobolds, leprechaunes, cluricaunes, banshees, will- 
o'-the-wisps, follets, lutins, magots, goblins, afrits, 
marids, jinns, ghouls, peris, deevs, angels, arch- 

3655 angels, imps, bogies, or worse, were nothing at 
all, and pure bosh and wind. And he had to 
get up very early in the morning to prove that, 
and to eat his breakfast overnight; but he did 
it, at least to his own satisfaction. Whereon a 

3660 certain great divine, and a very clever divine 
was he, called him a regular Sadducee ; and prob- 
ably he was quite right. Whereon the professor, 
in return, called him a regular Pharisee; and 



The Water-Babies 157 

probably he was quite right too. But they did 
not quarrel in the least; for, when men are men 3665 
of the world, hard words run off them like water 
off a duck's back. So the professor and the 
divine met at dinner that evening, and sat 
together on the sofa afterwards for an hour, and 
talked over the state of female labour on the 3670 
antarctic continent (for nobody talks shop after 
his claret), and each vowed that the other was 
the best company he ever met in his life. What 
an advantage it is to be men of the world ! 

From all which you may guess that the pro- 3675 
fessor was not the least of little Ellie's opinion. 
So he gave her a succinct compendium of his 
famous paper at the British Association, in a 
form suited for the youthful mind. But, as 
we have gone over his arguments against water- 3680 
babies once already, which is once too often, we 
will not repeat them here. 

Now little Ellie was, I suppose, a stupid little 
girl ; for, instead of being convinced by Professor 
Ptthmllnsprts' arguments, she only asked thesess 
same question over again. 

"But why are there not water-babies?" 

I trust and hope that it was because the 
professor trod at that moment on the edge of a 
very sharp mussel, and hurt one of his corns 3690 
sadly, that he answered quite sharply, forgetting 
that he was a scientific man, and therefore ought 



Ij8 The Water-Babies 

to have known that he couldn't know; and that 

he was a logician, and therefore ought to have 
3695 known that he could not prove a universal 

negative — I say, I trust and hope it was because 

the mussel hurt his corn, that the professor 

answered quite sharply: 
"Because there ain't." 
3700 Which was not even good English, my dear 

little boy; for, as you must know from Aunt 

Agitate' s Arguments, the professor ought to have 

said, if he was so angry as to say anything of 

the kind — Because there are not: or are none: 
3705 or are none? of them ; or (if he had been reading 

Aunt Agitate too) because they do not exist. 
And he groped with his net under the weeds 

so violently, that, as it befell, he caught poor 

little Tom. 
3710 He felt the net very heavy; and lifted it out 

quickly, with Tom all entangled in the meshes. 
"Dear me!" he cried. "What a large pink 

Holothurian; with hands, too! It must be 

connected with Synapta." 
37is And he took him out. 

1 ' It has actually eyes ! " he cried. "Why, it must 

be a Cephalopod! This is most extraordinary!" 
"No, I ain't!" cfied Tom, as loud as he could; 

for he did not like to be called bad names. 
3720 "It is a water-baby!" cried Ellie ; and of course 

it was. 



The Water-Babies ijg 

"Water-fiddlesticks, my dear!" said the pro- 
fessor; and he turned away sharply. 

There was no denying it. It was a water- 
baby: and he had said a moment ago that there 3725 
were none. What was he to do? 

He would have liked, of course, to have taken 
Tom home in a bucket. He would not have put 
him in spirits. Of course not. He would have 
kept him alive, and petted him (for he was a very 3730 
kind old gentleman), and written a book about 
him, and given him two long names, of which 
the first would have said a little about Tom, and 
the second all about himself; for of course he 
would have called him Hydrotecnon Ptthmlln- 3735 
sprtsianum, or some other long name like that ; 
for they are forced to call everything by long 
names now, because they have used up all the 
short ones, ever since they took to making nine 
species out of one. But — what would all the 3740 
learned men say to him after his speech at the 
British Association? And what would Ellie say, 
after what he had just told her? 

There was a wise old heathen once, who 
said, "Maxima debetur pueris reverentia" — The 3745 
greatest reverence is due to children; that is, 
that grown people should never say or do any- 
thing wrong before children, lest they should set 
them a bad example. — Cousin Cramchild says 
it means, "The greatest respectfulness is expected 3750 



160 The Water-Babies 

from little boys." But he was raised in a 

country where little boys are not expected to be 

respectful, because all of them are as good as 

■ the President: — Well, every one knows his own 

3755 concerns best; so perhaps they are. But poor 
Cousin Cramchild, to do him justice, not being 
of that opinion, and having a moral mission, 
and being no scholar to speak of, and hard up 
for an authority— why, it was a very great 

3760 temptation for him. But some people, and I am 
afraid the professor was one of them, interpret 
that in a more strange, curious, one-sided, left- 
handed, topsy-turvy, inside-out, behind-before 
fashion than even Cousin Cramchild, for they 

3765 make it mean, that you must show your respect 
for children, by never confessing yourself in the 
wrong to them, even if you know that you are 
so, lest they should lose confidence in their 
elders. 

3770 Now, if the professor had said to Ellie, "Yes, 
my darling, it is a water-baby, and a very wonder- 
ful thing it is ; and it shows how little I know 
of the wonders of nature, in spite of forty years' 
honest labour. I was just telling you that there 

3775 could be no such creatures; and, behold! here 
is one come to confound my conceit and show 
me that Nature can do, and has done, beyond 
all that man's poor fancy can imagine. So, 
let us thank the Maker, and Inspirer, and Lord 



The Water-Babies 161 

of Nature for all His wonderful and glorious stso 
works, and try and find out something about 
this one"; — I think that, if the professor had 
said that, little Ellie would have believed him 
more firmly, and respected him more deeply, 
and loved him better, than ever she had done 3735 
before. But he was of a different opinion. He 
hesitated a moment. He longed to keep Tom, 
and yet he half wished he never had caught 
him; and at last he quite longed to get rid of 
him. So he turned away and poked Tom with 3790 
his finger, for want of anything better to do; 
and said carelessly, "My dear little maid, you 
must have dreamt of water-babies last night, 
your head is so full of them." 

Now Tom had been in the most horrible and 3795 
unspeakable fright all the while; and had kept 
as quiet as he could, though he was called a 
Holothurian and a Cephalopod; for it was fixed 
in his little head that if a man with clothes on 
caught him, he might put clothes on him too.ssoo 
and make a dirty black chimney-sweep of him 
again. But, when the professor poked him, 
it was more than he could bear; and, between 
fright and rage, he turned to bay as valiantly 
as a mouse in a corner, and bit the professor's 3805 
finger till it bled. 

"Oh! ah! yah!" cried he; and glad of an excuse 
to be rid of Tom, dropped him on to the seaweed, 



162 The Water-Babies 

and thence he dived into the water and was 

38io gone in a moment. 

"But it was a water-baby, and I heard it 
speak!" cried Ellie. "Ah, it is gone!" And she 
jumped down off the rock to try and catch Tom 
before he slipped into the sea. 

saw Too late! and what was worse, as she sprang 
down, she slipped, and fell some six feet with 
her head on a sharp rock, and lay quite still. 

The professor picked her up, and tried to 
waken her, and called to her, and cried over her, 

3820 for he loved her very much: but she would not 
waken at all. So he took her up in his arms and 
carried her to her governess, and they all went 
home ; and little Ellie was put to bed, and lay there 
quite still; only now and then she woke up and 

3825 called out about the water-baby : but no one knew 
what she meant, and the professor did not tell, 
for he was ashamed to tell. 

And, after a week, one moonlight night, the 
fairies came flying in at the window and brought 

3830 her such a pretty pair of wings that she could not 
help putting them on; and she flew with them 
out of the window, and over the land, and over 
the sea, and up through the clouds, and nobody 
heard or saw anything of her for a very long 

3835 while. 

And this is why they say that no one has ever 
yet seen a water-baby. For my part, I believe 



The Water-Babies 163 

that the naturalists get dozens of them when 
they are out dredging; but they say nothing 
about them, and throw them overboard again, 384o 
for fear of spoiling their theories. But, you see 
the professor was found out, as every one is in 
due time. A very terrible old fairy found the 
professor out; she felt his bumps, and cast his 
nativity, and took the lunars of him carefully 3845 
inside and out: and so she knew what he would 
do as well as if she had seen it in a print book, 
as they say in the dear old west country ; and he 
did it; and so he was found out beforehand, as 
everybody always is ; and the old fairy will find out 385o 
the naturalists some day, and put them in the 
Times, and then on whose side will the laugh be ? 

So the old fairy took him in hand very severely 
there and then. 'But she says she is always 
most severe with the best people, because there 3355 
is most chance of curing them, and therefore 
they are the patients who pay her best; for she 
has to work on the same salary as the Emperor 
of China's physicians (it is a pity that all do 
not), no cure, no pay. 3seo 

So she took the poor professor in hand: and 
because he was not content with things as they 
are, she filled his head with things as they are 
not, to try if he would like them better; and 
because he did not choose to believe in a water- 3865 
baby when he saw it, she rt^ade him believe in 



164 The Water-Babies 

worse things than water-babies — in unicorns, 
fire-drakes, manticoras, basilisks, amphisbcenas, 
griffins, phoenixes, rocs, ores, dog-headed men, 

3870 three-headed dogs, three-bodied geryons, and other 
pleasant creatures, which folks think never 
existed yet, and which folks hope never will 
exist, though they know nothing about the 
matter, and never will; and these creatures so 

3875 upset, terrified, flustered, aggravated, confused, 
astounded, horrified, and totally flabbergasted 
the poor professor that the doctors said that he 
was out of his wits for three months ; and perhaps 
they were right, as they are now and then. 

3880 So all the doctors in the county were called 
in to make a report on his case; and of course 
every one of them flatly contradicted the other: 
else what use is there in being men of science? 
But at last the majority agreed on a report in 

3885 the true medical language, one half bad Latin, 
the other half worse Greek, and the rest what 
might have been English, if they had only 
learnt to write it. And this is the beginning 
thereof — 

3890 "The subanhypaposupernal anastomoses of peri- 
tomic diacellurite in the encephalo-digital region of 
the distinguished individual of whose symptomatic 
phenomena we had the melancholy honour {subse- 
quently to a preliminary diagnostic inspection) of 

3895 making an inspectorial diagnosis, presenting the 



The Water-Babies 165 

inter exclusively quadrilateral and antinomian dia- 
thesis known as Bumpsterhauserf s blue follicles, we 
proceeded" — 

But what they proceeded to do My Lady never 
knew; for she was so frightened at the long 3900 
words that she ran for her life, and locked herself 
into her bedroom, for fear of being squashed by 
the words and strangled by the sentence. A 
boa constrictor, she said, was bad company 
enough: but what was a boa constrictor made 3905 
of paving stones? 

' 'It was quite shocking! What can they think 
is the matter with him?" said she to the old 
nurse. 

'That his wit's just addled; may be wi' un-3910 
belief and heathenry," quoth she. 

'Then why can't they say so?" 

And the heaven, and the sea, and the rocks, 
and the vales re-echoed — ''Why, indeed?" But 
the doctors never heard them. 391S 

So she made Sir John write to the Times to 
command the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the 
time being to put a tax on long words ; — 

A light tax on words over three syllables, which 
are necessary evils, like rats: but, like them, must 3920 
be kept down judiciously. 

A heavy tax on words over four syllables, as 
heterodoxy, spontaneity, spiritualism, spuriosity, etc. 

And on words over five syllables (of which 



1 66 The Water -Babies 

3925 1 hope no one will wish to see any examples), 
a totally prohibitory tax. 

And a similar prohibitory tax on words derived 
from three or more languages at once; words 
derived from two languages having become so 

3930 common that there was no more hope of rooting 
out them than of rooting out peth-winds. 

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, being a 
scholar and a man of sense, jumped at the notion ; 
for he .saw in it the one and only plan for abolishing 

3935 Schedule D: but when he brought in his bill, 
most of the Irish members, and (I am sorry to 
say) some of the Scotch likewise, opposed it most 
strongly, on the ground that in a free country 
no man was bound either to understand himself 

3940 or to let others understand him. So the bill 
fell through on the first reading; and the 
Chancellor, being a philosopher, comforted him- 
self with the thought that it was not the first 
time that a woman had hit off a grand idea and 

3945 the men turned up their stupid noses thereat. 

Now the doctors had it all their own way ; and 
to work they went in earnest, and they gave 
the poor professor divers and sundry medicines, 
as prescribed by the ancients and moderns, from 

3»5o Hippocrates to Feuchtersleben, as below, viz. — 

i. Hellebore, to wit — 

Hellebore of Mia. 



The Water-Babies i6y 

t 

Hellebore of G alalia. 

Hellebore of Sicily. 

And all other Hellebores, after the 3955 
method of the Helleborising Helle- 
borists of tlie Helleboric era. But 
that would not do. Bmnpster- 
hauserfs blue follicles would not stir 
an inch out of his encephalo-digitahwo 
region. 

2. Trying to find out what was the matter with 
him, after the method of 

Hippocrates, 

Aretoeus, 3985 

Celsus, 

Ccelius Aurelianus, 

And Galen. 
But they found that a great deal too much 
trouble, as most people have since; and so had 3970 
recourse to — 

3. Borage. 
Cauteries. 
Boring a hole in his head to let out fumes, 
which (says Gordonius) "will, without doubt, 3975 
do much good." But it didn't. 

Bezoar stone. 

Diamargaritum . 

A ram's brain boiled in spice. 

Oil of wormwood. 3M0 



168 The Water-Babies 

Water of Nile. 

Capers. 

Good wine {but there was none to be got). 

The water of a smith's forge. 
3985 Hops. 

Ambergris. 

Mandrake pillows. 

Dormouse fat. 

Hares' jars. 
3990 Starvation. 

Camphor. 

Salts and senna. 

Musk. 

Opium. 
3995 Strait-waistcoats. 

Bully ings. 

Bumpings. 

Blister ings. 

Bleedings. 
4000 Bucketings with cold water. 

Knockings down. 

Kneeling on his chest till they broke it 

in, etc. etc.; after the mediceval or 

monkish method: but that would not 

4005 do. Bumpsterhausen' s blue follicles 

stuck there still. 

Then— 

4. Coaxing. 



The Water-Babies i6g 

Kissing. 

Champagne and turtle. *oio 

Red herrings and soda water 

Good advice. 

Gardening. 

Croquet. 

Musical soirees. 4015 

Aunt Sally. 

Mild tobacco. 

The Saturday Review. 

A carriage with outriders, etc. etc. 

After the modern method. But that would not 4020 
do. 

And if he had but been a convict lunatic, and 
had shot at the Queen, killed all his creditors 
to avoid paying them, or indulged in any other 
little amiable eccentricity of that kind, they 4025 
would have given him in addition — 

The healthiest situation in England, on East- 
hampstead Plain. 

Free run of Windsor Forest. 

The Times every morning. 4030 

A double-barrelled gun and pointers, and 
leave to shoot three Wellington College boys a 
week (not more) in case black game was scarce. 

But as he was neither mad enough nor bad 
enough to be allowed such luxuries, they grew 4035 
desperate, and fell into bad ways, viz. — 



lyo The Water-Babies 

5. Suffumigations of sulphur. 

Herrwiggius his "Incomparable drink 
for madmen": 

<o4o Only they could not find out what it was. 

Suffumigation of the liver of the fish * * * 

Only they had forgotten its name, so Dr. 
Gray could not well procure them a specimen. 

Metallic tractors. 
<o45 Holloway's Ointment. 

Electro-biology. 

Valentine Greatrakes his Stroking Cure. 

Spirit-rapping. 

Holloway's Pills. 
«>5o Table-turning. 

Morison's Pills. 

Homoeopathy. 

Parr's Life Pills. 

Mesmerism. 
<055 Pure Bosh. 

Exorcisms, for which they read Maleus 
Maleftcarum, Nideri Formicarium, 
Delrio, Wierus, etc. 

But could not get one that mentioned water- 
4060 babies. 

Hydropathy. 

Madame Rachel's Elixir of Youth. 



The Water-Babies iyi 

The Poughkeepsie Seer his Prophecies. 
The distilled liquor of addle eggs. 
Pyropathy. ■ ws 

As successfully employed by the old inquisitors 
to cure the malady of thought, and now by the 
Persian Mollahs to cure that of rheumatism. 

Geopathy, or burying him. 

Atmopathy, or steaming him. 4070 

Sympathy, after the method of Basil 
Valentine his Triumph of Antimony, 
and Kenelm Digby his Weapon- 
salve, which some call a hair of the 
dog that bit him. 4975 

Hermopathy, or pouring mercury down 
his throat to move the animal spirits. 

Meteoropathy, or going up to the moon 
to look for his lost wits, as Ruggiero 
did for Orlando Furioso's: only, mo 
having no hippogriff, they were forced 
to use a balloon; and, falling into the 
North Sea, were picked up by a 
Yarmouth herring-boat, and came 
home much the wiser, and all overms 
scales. 

Antipathy, or using him like "a man 
and a brother." 

Apathy, or doing nothing at all. 

With all other ipathies and opathies*^ 



$J2 The Water-Babies 

which Noodle has invented, and 
Foodie tried, since black-fellows 
chipped flints at Abbeville — which 
is a considerable time ago, to judge 
<095 by the Great Exhibition. 

But nothing would do; for he screamed and 
cried all day for a water-baby, to come and 
drive away the monsters; and of course they 
did not try to find one, because they did not 

4100 believe in them, and were thinking of nothing 
but Bumpsterhausen's blue follicles; having, as 
usual, set the cart before the horse, and taken 
. the effect for the cause. 

So they were forced at last to let the poor 

4105 prof essor ease his mind by writing a great book, 
exactly contrary to all his old opinions ; in which 
he proved that the moon was made of green 
cheese, and that all the mites in it (which you 
may see sometimes quite plain through a tele- 

4no scope, if you will only keep the lens dirty enough, 
as Mr. Weekes kept his voltaic battery) are 
nothing in the world but little babies, who are 
hatching and swarming up there in millions, 
ready to come down into this world whenever 

4ii5 children want a new little brother or sister. 

Which must be a mistake, for this one reason: 
that, there being no atmosphere round the moon 
(though some one or other says there is, at least 



The Water-Babies 173 

on the other side, and that he has been round 
at the back of it to see, and found that the moon 4120 
was just the shape of a Bath bun, and so wet that 
the man in the moon went about on Midsummer- 
day in Macintoshes and Cording' s boots, spearing 
eels and sneezing) ; that, therefore, I say, there 
being no atmosphere, there can be no evapora-4125 
tion; and therefore, the dew-point can never 
fall below 71.5 below zero of Fahrenheit: and, 
therefore, it cannot be cold enough there about 
four o'clock in the morning to condense the 
babies' mesenteric apophthegms into their left 4130 
ventricles; and, therefore, they can never catch 
the hooping-cough; and if they do not have 
hooping-cough, they cannot be babies at all; 
and, therefore, there are no babies in the 
moon. — Q.E.D. 4135 

Which may seem a roundabout reason; and 
so, perhaps, it is: but you will have heard worse 
ones in your time, and from better men than 
you are. 

But one thing is certain; that, when the good 4140 
old doctor got his book written, he felt consid- 
erably relieved from Bumpsterhausen's blue 
follicles, and a few things infinitely worse; to 
wit, from pride and vain-glory, and from blind- 
ness and hardness of heart; which are the true 4145 
causes of Bumpsterhausen's blue follicles, and 
of a good many other ugly things besides. 



174 The Water-Babies 

Whereon the foul flood-water in his brains ran 
down, and cleared to a fine coffee colour, such 

«5o as fish like to rise in, till very fine clean fresh- 
run fish did begin to rise in his brains; and he 
caught two or three of them (which is exceedingly 
fine sport, for brain rivers), and anatomised them 
carefully, and never mentioned what he found 

«55 out from them, except to little children; and 
became ever after a sadder and a wiser man; 
which is a very good thing to become, my dear 
little boy, even though one has to pay a heavy 
price for the blessing. 



Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear 
The Godhead's most benignant grace; 
Nor know we anything so fair 
As is the smile upon thy face: 
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds 
And fragrance in thy footing treads; 
Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong; 
And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and strong. 

Wordsworth, Ode to Duty. 



CHAPTER V 

BUT what became of little Tom? «eo 

He slipped away off the rocks into the 
water, as I said before. But he could not help 
thinking of little Ellie. He did not remember 
who she was; but he knew that she was a little 
girl, though she was a hundred times as big assies 
he. That is not surprising : size has nothing to 
do with kindred. A tiny weed may be first 
cousin to a great tree; and a little dog like 
Vick knows that Lioness is a dog too, though 
she is twenty times larger than herself. So Tom mo 
knew that Ellie was a little girl, and thought 
about her all that day, and longed to have had 
her to play with ; but he had very soon to think 
of something else. And here is the account 
of what happened to him, as it was published «75 
next morning in the Waterproof Gazette, on the 
finest watered paper, for the use of the great 
fairy, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, who reads the 
news very carefully every morning, and espe- 
cially the police cases, as you will hear very4i8o 
soon. 

He was going along the rocks in three-fathom 
water, watching the pollock catch prawns, and 
the wrasses nibble barnacles off the rocks, shells 
and all, when he saw a round cage of green «ss 
withes ; and inside it, looking very much ashamed 



1 78 The Water-Babies 

of himself, sat his friend the lobster, twiddling 
his horns, instead of thumbs. 

"What, have you been naughty, and have 
4i9o they put you in the lock-up?" asked Tom. 

The lobster felt a little indignant at such a 
notion, but he was too much depressed in spirits 
to argue; so he only said, "I can't get out." 
"Why did you get in?" 
«95 "After that nasty piece of dead fish." He had 
thought it looked and smelt very nice when he 
was outside, and so it did, for a lobster : but now 
he turned round and abused it because he was 
angry with himself. 
4200 "Where did you get in?" 

"Through that round hole at the top." 
"Then why don't you get out through it?" 
"Because I can't": and the lobster twiddled 
his horns more fiercely than ever, but he was 
4205 forced to confess. 

"I have jumped upwards, downwards, back- 
wards, and sideways, at least four thousand 
times; and I can't get out: I always get up 
underneath there, and can't find the hole." 
4210 Tom looked at the trap, and having more wit 
than the lobster, he saw plainly enough what was 
the matter; as you may if you will look at a 
lobster-pot. 

"Stop a bit," said Tom. "Turn your tail 
4215 up to me, and I'll pull you through hindfore- 



The Water-Babies 179 

most, and then you won't stick in the spikes." 
But the lobster was so stupid and clumsy that 
he couldn't hit the hole. Like a great many fox- 
hunters, he was very sharp as long as he was in 
his own country; but as soon as they get out of 4220 
it they lose their heads ; and so the lobster, so to 
speak, lost his tail. 

Tom reached and clawed down the hole after 
him, till he caught hold of him; and then, as. was 
to be expected, the clumsy lobster pulled him in*** 
head foremost. 

" Hullo! here is a pretty business," said Tom. 
"Now take your great claws, and break the points 
off those spikes, and then we shall both get out 

easily." 423 ° 

"Dear me, I never thought of that," said the 
lobster; "and after all the experience of life that 
I have had!" 

You see, experience is of very little good unless 
a man, or a lobster, has wit enough to make use ^5 
of it. For a good many people, like old Polonius, 
have seen all the world, and yet remain little 
better than children after all. 

But they had not got half the spikes away when 
they saw a great dark cloud over them : and lo, «<o 
and behold, it was the otter. 

How she did grin and grin when she saw Tom. 
"Yar!" said she, "you little meddlesome wretch, 
I have you now ! I will serve you out for telling 



180 The Water-Babies 

«45 the salmon where I was!" And she crawled all 
over the pot to get in. 

Tom was horribly frightened, and still more 
frightened when she found the hole in the top, 
and squeezed herself right down through it, all 
4250 eyes and teeth. But no sooner was her head 
inside than valiant Mr. Lobster caught her by the 
nose and held on. 

And there they were all three in the pot, rolling 
ever and over, and very tight packing it was. 
4255 And the lobster tore at the otter, and the otter 
tore at the lobster, and both squeezed and 
thumped poor Tom till he had no breath left in 
his body; and I don't know what would have 
happened to him if he had not at last got on the 
4260 otter's back, and safe out of the hole. 

He was right glad when he got out: but he 

would not desert his friend who had saved him; 

and the first time he saw his tail uppermost he 

caught hold of it, and pulled with all his might. 

4265 But the lobster would not let go. 

"Come along," said Tom; "don't you see she is 
dead?" And so she was, quite drowned and dead. 
And that was the end of the wicked otter. 
But the lobster would not let go. 
4270 "Come along, you stupid old stick-in-the-mud," 
cried Tom, "or the fisherman will catch you!" 
And that was true, for Tom felt some one above 
beginning to haul up the pot. 



The Water-Babies 181 

But the lobster would not let go. 

Tom saw the fisherman haul him up to the 4275 
boat-side, and thought it was all up with him. 
But when Mr. Lobster saw the fisherman, he gave 
such a furious and tremendous snap, that he 
snapped out of his hand, and out of the pot, and 
safe into, the sea. But he left his knobbed claw42so 
behind him ; for it never came into his stupid head 
to let go after all, so he just shook his claw off as 
the easier method. It was something of a bull, 
that; but you must know the lobster was an 
Irish lobster, and was hatched off Island Magee«85 
at the mouth of Belfast Lough. 

Tom asked the lobster why he never thought 
of letting go. He said very determinedly that it 
was a point of honour among lobsters. And so 
it is, as the Mayor of Plymouth found out once 4290 
to his cost — eight or nine hundred years ago, of 
course ; for if it had happened lately it would be 
personal to mention it. 

For one day he was so tired with sitting on a 
hard chair, in a grand furred gown, with a gold 4295 
chain round his neck, hearing one policeman 
after another come in and sing, "What shall we 
do with the drunken sailor, so early in the morn- 
ing?" and answering them each exactly alike: 

"Put him in the round house till he gets sober, 4300 
so early in the morning" — 

That, when it was over, he jumped up, and 



182 The Water-Babies 

played leap-frog with the town-clerk till he burst 
his buttons, and then had his luncheon, and 

4305 burst some more buttons, and then said: "It is 
a low spring- tide; I shall go out this afternoon 
and cut my capers." 

Now he did not mean to cut such capers as you 
eat with boiled mutton. It was the commandant 

4310 of artillery at Valetta who used to amuse himself 
with cutting them, and who stuck upon one of the 
bastions a notice, "No one allowed to cut capers 
here but me," which greatly edified the midship- 
men in port, and the Maltese on the Nix Mangiare 

4315 stairs. But all that the mayor meant was that 
he would go and have an afternoon's fun, like 
any schoolboy, and catch lobsters with an iron 
hook. 

So to the Mewstone he went, and for lobsters he 

4320 looked. And when he came to a certain crack 
in the rocks he was so excited that, instead of 
putting in his hook, he put in his hand; and 
Mr. Lobster was at home, and caught him by the 
finger, and held on. 

4325 ''Yah!" said the mayor, and pulled as hard as 

he dared: but the more he pulled, the more the 

lobster pinched, till he was forced to be quiet. 

Then he tried to get his hook in with his other 

hand; but the hole was too narrow. 

4330 Then he pulled again; but he could not stand 
the pain. 



The Water-Babies 183 

Then he shouted and bawled for help ; but there 
was no one nearer him than the men-of-war inside 
the breakwater. 

Then he began to turn a little pale ; for the tide <sm 
flowed, and still the lobster held on. 

Then he turned quite white; for the tide was 
up to his knees, and still the lobster held on. 

Then he thought of cutting off his finger; but 
he wanted two things to do it with — courage and a «4o 
knife; and he had got neither. 

Then he turned quite yellow; for the tide was 
up to his waist, and still the lobster held on. 

Then he thought over all the naughty things 
he ever had done ; all the sand which he had put «45 
in the sugar, and the sloe-leaves in the tea, and 
the water in the treacle, and the salt in the 
tobacco (because his brother was a brewer, and a 
man must help his own kin). 

Then he turned quite blue; for the tide was«so 
up to his breast, and still the lobster held on. 

Then, I have no doubt, he repented fully of all 
the said naughty things which he had done, and 
promised to mend his life, as too many do when 
they think they have no life left to mend. Where- 4355 
by, as they fancy, they make a very cheap bar- 
gain. But the old fairy with the birch rod soon 
undeceives them. 

And then he grew all colours at once, and 
turned up his eyes like a duck in thunder ; for the «eo 



1 84 The Water -Babies 

water was up to his chin, and still the lobster 
held on. 

And then came a man-of-war's boat round the 
Mewstone, and saw his head sticking up out of 

4365 the water. One said it was a keg of brandy, and 
another that it was a cocoa-nut, and another 
that it was a buoy loose, and another that it was 
a black diver, and wanted to fire at it, which would 
not have been pleasant for the mayor: but just 

4370 then such a yell came out of a great hole in the 
middle of it that the midshipman in charge 
guessed what it was, and bade pull up to it as 
fast as they could. So somehow or other the 
Jack-tars got the lobster out, and set the mayor 

4375 free, and put him ashore at the Barbican. He 
never went lobster-catching again; and we will 
hope he put no more salt in the tobacco, not 
even to sell his brother's beer. 

And that is the story of the Mayor of Plymouth, 

4380 which has two advantages — first, that of being 
quite true; and second, that of having (as folks 
say all good stories ought to have) no moral what- 
soever: no more, indeed, has any part of this 
book, because it is a fairy tale, you know. 

4385 And now happened to Tom a most wonderful 
thing ; for he had not left the lobster five minutes 
before he came upon a water-baby. 

A real live water-baby, sitting on the white 
sand, very busy about a little point of rock. And 



The Water-Babies 185 

when it saw Tom it looked up for a moment, and 4390 
then cried, "Why, you are not one of us. You 
are a new baby! Oh, how delightful !" 

And it ran to Tom, and Tom ran to it, and 
they hugged and kissed each other for ever so 
long, they did not know why. But they did not 4395 
want any introductions there under the water. 

At last Tom said, "Oh, where have you been 
all this while? I have been looking for you so 
long, and I have been so lonely." 

"We have been here for days and days. There 4400 
are hundreds of us about the rocks. How was it 
you did not see us, or hear us when we sing and 
romp every evening before we go home?' , 

Tom looked at the baby again, and then he 
said : 4405 

"Well, this is wonderful ! I have seen things 
just like you again and again, but I thought you 
were shells, or sea-creatures. I never took you 
for water-babies like myself." 

Now, was not that very odd? So odd, indeed, 4410 
that you will, no doubt, want to know how it 
happened, and why Tom could never find a water- 
baby till after he had got the lobster out of the' 
pot. And, if you will read this story nine times 
over, and then think for yourself, you will find 4415 
out why. It is not good for little boys to be told 
everything, and never to be forced to use their 
own wits. They would learn, then, no more than 



186 The Water-Babies 

they do at Dr. Dulcimer's famous suburban 

«2o establishment for the idler members of the youth- 
ful aristocracy, where the masters learn the les- 
sons and the boys hear them— which saves a great 
deal of trouble — for the time being. 

"Now," said the baby, "come and help me, or 

4425I shall not have finished before my brothers and 
sisters come, and it is time to go home." 
"What shall I help you at?" 
"At this poor dear little rock; a great clumsy 
boulder came rolling by in the last storm, and 

4430 knocked all its head off, and rubbed off all its 
flowers. And now I must plant it again with 
seaweeds, and coralline, and anemones, and I 
will make it the prettiest little rock-garden on all 
the shore." 

4435 So they worked away at the rock, and planted 
it, and smoothed the sand down round it, and 
capital fun they had till the tide began to turn. 
And then Tom heard all the other babies com- 
ing, laughing and singing and shouting and 

4440 romping; and the noise they made was just like 

the noise of the ripple. So he knew that he had 

'been hearing and seeing the water-babies all along ; 

only he did not know them, because his eyes and 

ears were not opened. 

4445 And in they came, dozens and dozens of them, 
some bigger than Tom and some smaller, all in 
the neatest little white bathing dresses ; and when 



The Water-Babies 187 

they found that he was a new baby, they hugged 
him and kissed him, and then put him in the 
middle and danced round him on the sand, and 4450 
there was no one ever so happy as poor little Tom. 

"Now then," they cried all at once, "we must 
come away home, we must come away home, or 
the tide will leave us dry. We have mended all 
the broken seaweed, and put all the rock-pools 4455 
in order, and planted all the shells again in the 
sand, and nobody will see where the ugly storm 
swept in last week." 

And this is the reason why the rock-pools are 
always so neat and clean; because the water- «ao 
babies come inshore after every storm to sweep 
them out, and comb them down, and put them 
all to rights again. 

Only where men are wasteful and dirty, and let 
sewers run into the sea instead of putting the 4465 
stuff upon the fields like thrifty reasonable souls ; 
or throw herrings' heads and dead dog-fish, or 
any other refuse, into the water; or in any way 
make a mess upon the clean shore — there the 
water-babies will not come, sometimes not for 4470 
hundreds of years (for they cannot abide any- 
thing smelly or foul), but leave the sea-anemones 
and the crabs to clear away everything, till the 
good tidy sea has covered up all the dirt in soft 
mud and clean sand, where the water-babies can 4475 
plant live cockles and whelks and razor-shells 



188 The Water-Babies 

and sea-cucumbers and golden-combs, and make 
a pretty live garden again, after man's dirt is 
cleared away. And that, I suppose, is the reason 

4480 why there are no water-babies at any watering- 
place which I have ever seen. 

And where is the home of the water-babies? 
In St. Brandan' s fairy isle. 
Did you never hear of the blessed St. Brandan, 

4485 how he preached to the wild Irish on the wild, 
wild Kerry coast, he and five other hermits, till 
they were weary and longed to rest? For the 
wild Irish would not listen to them, or come to 
confession and to mass, but liked better to brew 

4490 potheen, and dance the pater o'pee, and knock 
each other over the head with shillelaghs, and 
shoot each other from behind turf-dykes, and 
steal each other's cattle, and burn each other's 
homes ; till St. Brandan and his friends were weary 

4495 of them, for they would not learn to be peace- 
able Christians at all. 

So St. Brandan went out to the point of Old 
Dunmore, and looked over the tide-way roaring 
round the Blasquets, at the end of all the world, 

4500 and away into the ocean, and sighed — "Ah that 
I had wings as a dove!" And far away, before 
the setting sun, he saw a blue fairy sea, and golden 
fairy islands, and he said, "Those are the islands 
of the blest." Then he and his friends got into 

4505 a hooker, and sailed away and away to the 



The Water-Babies i8g 

westward, and were never heard of more. But 
the people who would not hear him were changed 
into gorillas, and gorillas they are until this day. 
And when St. Brandan and the hermits came to 
that fairy isle they found it overgrown with cedars 4510 
and full of beautiful birds; and he sat down 
under the cedars and preached to all the birds 
in the air. And they liked his sermons so well 
that they told the fishes in the sea; and they 
came, and St. Brandan preached to them; and 4515 
the fishes told the water-babies, who live in the 
caves under the isle; and they came up by 
hundreds every Sunday, and St. Brandan got 
quite a neat little Sunday-school. And there 
he taught the water-babies for a great many 4520 
hundred years, till his eyes grew too dim to see, 
and his beard grew so long that he dared not 
walk for fear of treading on it, and then hejmight 
have tumbled down. And at last he and the five 
hermits fell fast asleep under the cedar-shades, 4525 
and there they sleep unto this day. But the 
fairies took to the water-babies, and taught them 
their lessons themselves. 

And some say that St. Brandan will awake 
and begin to teach the babies once more: but 4530 
some think that he will sleep on, for better for 
worse, till the coming of the Cocqcigrues. But, 
on still clear summer evenings, when the sun sinks 
down into the sea, among golden cloud-capes and 



igo The Water-Babies 

4535 cloud-islands, and locks and friths of azure sky, 
the sailors fancy that they see, away to the west- 
ward, St. Brandan's fairy isle. 

But whether men can see it or not, St. Bran- 
dan's Isle once actually stood there ; a great land 

4540 out in the ocean, which has sunk and sunk beneath 
the waves. Old Plato called it Atlantis, and told 
strange tales of the wise men who lived therein 
and of the wars they fought in the old times. 
And from off that island came strange flowers, 

4545 which linger still about this land: — the Cornish 
heath, and Cornish moneywort, and the delicate 
Venus' s hair, and the London-pride which covers 
the Kerry mountains, and the little pink butter- 
wort of Devon, and the great blue butterwort of 

4550 Ireland, and the Connemara heath, and the bristle- 
fern of the Turk waterfall, and many a strange 
plant more ; all fairy tokens left for wise men and 
good children from off St. Brandan's Isle. 

Now when Tom got there, he found that the 

4555 isle stood all on pillars, and that its roots were 
full of caves. There were pillars of black basalt, 
like Staff a; and pillars of green and crimson 
serpentine, like Kynance; and pillars ribboned 
with red and white and yellow sandstone, like 

4560 Livermead ; and there were blue grottoes like 
Capri, and white grottoes like Adelsberg ; all cur- 
tained and draped with seaweeds, purple and 
crimson, green and brown; and strewn with 



The Water-Babies igi 

soft white sand, on which the water-babies sleep 
every night. But, to keep the place clean and 4565 
sweet, the crabs picked up all the scraps off the 
floor and ate them like so many monkeys; while 
the rocks were covered with ten thousand sea- 
anemones, and corals and madrepores, who 
scavenged the water all day long, and kept it 4570 
nice and pure. But, to make up to them for 
having to do such nasty work, they were not left 
black and dirty, as poor chimney-sweeps and 
dustmen are. No; the fairies are more consid- 
erate and just than that, and have dressed 4575 
them all in the most beautiful colours and pat- 
terns, till they look like vast flower-beds of gay 
blossoms. If you think I am talking nonsense, 
I can only say that it is true; and that an old 
gentleman named Fourier used to say that we^so 
ought to do the same by chimney-sweeps and 
dustmen, and honour them instead of despising 
them; and he was a very clever old gentleman: 
but, unfortunately for him and the world, as mad 
as a March hare. 4535 

And, instead of watchmen and policemen to 
keep out nasty things at night, there were thou- 
sands and thousands of water-snakes, and most 
wonderful creatures they were. They were all 
named after the Nereids, the sea-fairies who took 4590 
care of them, Eunice and Polynoe, Phyllodoce 
and Psamathe, and all the rest of the pretty 



IQ2 The Water-Babies 

darlings who swim round their Queen Amphi- 
trite, and her car of cameo shell. They were 

4595 dressed in green velvet, and black velvet, and 
purple velvet ; and were all jointed in rings ; and 
some of them had three hundred brains apiece, 
so that they must have been uncommonly shrewd 
detectives ; and some had eyes in their tails ; and 

46oo some had eyes in every joint, so that they kept a 
very sharp look-out; and when they wanted a 
baby-snake, they just grew one at the end of their 
own tails, and when it was able to take care of 
itself it dropped off; so that they brought up 

4605 their families very cheaply. But if any nasty 
thing came by, out they rushed upon it ; and then 
out of each of their hundreds of feet there sprang 
a whole cutler's shop of 

Scythes, Javelins, 

46io Billhooks, Lances, 

Pickaxes, Halberts, . 

Forks, Gisarines, 

Penknives, Poleaxes, 

Rapiers, Fishhooks, 

46i5 Sabres, Bradawls, 

Yataghans, Gimblets, 

Creeses, Corkscrews, 

Ghoorka swords, Pins, 

Tucks, Needles, 
4620 And so forth 



The Water-Babies igj 

which stabbed, shot, poked, pricked, scratched, 
ripped, pinked, and crimped those naughty beasts 
so terribly that they had to run for their lives, 
or else be chopped into small pieces and be eaten 
afterwards. And, if that is not all, every word, 4625 
true, then there is no faith in microscopes, and 
all is over with the Linnaean Society. 

And there were the water-babies in thousands, 
more than Tom, or you either, could count. — All 
the little children whom the good fairies take^o 
to, because their cruel mothers and fathers will 
not; all who are untaught and brought up 
heathens, and all who come to grief by ill-usage 
or ignorance or neglect ; all the little children who 
are overlaid, or given gin when they are young, 4035 
or are let to drink out of hot kettles, or to fall 
into the fire; all the little children in alleys and 
courts, and tumble-down cottages, who die by 
fever, and cholera, and measles, and scarlatina, 
and nasty complaints which no one has any464o 
business to have, and which no one will have 
some day, when folks have common sense ; and 
all the little children who have been killed by 
cruel masters and wicked soldiers; they were all 
there, except, of course, the babes of Bethlehem 4645 
who were killed by wicked King Herod ; for they 
were taken straight to heaven long ago, as every- 
body knows, and we call them the Holy Innocents. 

But I wish Tom had given up all his naughty 



IQ4 The Water-Babies 

465o tricks, and left off tormenting dumb animals now 
that he had plenty of playfellows to amuse 
him. Instead of that, I am sorry to say, he 
would meddle with the creatures, all but the 
water-snakes, for they would stand no nonsense. 

4655 So he tickled the madrepores, to make them shut 
up; and frightened the* crabs, to make them 
hide in the sand and peep out at him with the 
tips of their eyes ; and put stones into the anem- 
ones' mouths, to make them fancy that their 

4660 dinner was coming. 

The other children warned him, and said, 
"Take care what you are at. Mrs. Bedonebyas- 
youdid is coming." But Tom never heeded them, 
being quite riotous with high spirits and good 

4665 luck, till, one Friday morning early, Mrs. Bedone- 
byasyoudid came indeed. 

A very tremendous lady she was ; and when 
the children saw her they all stood in a row, very 
upright indeed, and smoothed down their bathing 

4670 dresses, and put their hands behind them, just 
as if they were going to be examined by the 
inspector. 

And she had on a black bonnet, and a black 
shawl, and no crinoline at all; and a pair of 

4675 large green spectacles, and a great hooked nose, 
hooked so much that the bridge of it stood 
quite up above her eyebrows; and under her 
arm she carried a great birch-rod. Indeed, she 




"A very tremendous lady she was 1 

[IPS] 



iq6 The Water-Babies 

was so ugly that Tom was tempted to make faces 

4680 at her: but did not; for he did not admire the 
look of the birch-rod under her arm. 

And she looked at the children one by one, 
and seemed very much pleased with them, though 
she never asked them one question about how 

4685 they were behaving ; and then began giving them 
all sorts of nice sea-things — sea-cakes, sea-apples, 
sea-oranges, sea-bullseyes, sea-toffee; and to the 
very best of all she gave sea-ices, made out of 
sea-cows' cream, which never melt under water. 

4690 And, if you don't quite believe me, then just 
think — What is more cheap and plentiful than 
sea-rock? Then why should there not be sea- 
toffee as well ? And every one can find sea-lemons 
(ready quartered too) if they will look for them 

4695 at low tide; and sea-grapes too sometimes, 
hanging in bunches ; and, if you will go to 
Nice, you will find the fish-market full of sea- 
fruit, which they call "frutta di mare": though 
I suppose they call them "fruits de mer" now, 

4700 out of compliment to that most successful, and 
therefore most immaculate, potentate who is 
seemingly desirous of inheriting the blessing pro- 
nounced on those who remove their neighbours' 
land-mark. And, perhaps, that is the very 

4705 reason why the place is called Nice, because 
there are so many nice things in the sea there : at 
least, if it is not, it ought to be. 



The Water-Babies igy 

Now little Tom watched all these sweet things 
given away, till his mouth watered, and his eyes 
grew as round as an owl's. For he hoped that 4710 
his turn would come at last; and so it did. For 
the lady called him up, and held out her fingers 
with something in them, and popped it into his 
mouth; and, lo and behold, it was a nasty cold 
hard pebble. 4715 

"You are a very cruel woman," said he, 
and began to whimper. 

"And you are a very cruel boy; who puts 
pebbles into the sea-anemones' mouths, to take 
them in, and make them fancy that they had 4720 
caught a good dinner ! As you did to them, so I 
must do to you." 

"Who told you that?" said Tom. 

"You did yourself, this very minute." 

Tom had never opened his lips; so he was 4725 
very much taken aback indeed. 

"Yes; every one tells me exactly what they 
have done wrong ; and that without knowing it 
themselves. So there is no use trying to hide 
anything from me. Now go, and be a good boy, 4730 
and I will put no more pebbles in your mouth, 
if you put none in other creatures'. " 

"I did not know there was any harm in it," 
said Tom. 

"Then you know now. People continually 4735 
say that to me: but I tell them, if you don't 



iq8 The Water-Babies 

know that fire burns, that is no reason that it 
should not burn you; and if you don't know 
that dirt breeds fever, that is no reason why the 

4740 fevers should not kill you. The lobster did not 
know that there was any harm in getting into 
the lobster-pot; but it caught him all the same." 
"Dear me," thought Tom, "she knows every- 
thing!" And so she did, indeed. 

4745 "And so, if you do not know that things are 
wrong, that is no reason why you should not be 
punished for them; though not as much, not as 
much, my little man" (and the lady looked very 
kindly, after all), "as if you did know.'' 

4750 "Well, you are a little hard on a poor lad," 
said Tom. 

"Not at all; I am the best friend you ever had 
in all your life. But I will tell you; I cannot 
help punishing people when they do wrong. I 

4755 like it no more than they do; I am often very, 
very sorry for them, poor things: but I cannot 
help it. If I tried not to do it, I should do it all 
the same. For I work by machinery, just like 
an engine; and am full of wheels and springs 

4760 inside; and am wound up very carefully, so that 
I cannot help going." 

"Was it long ago since they wound you up?" 
asked Tom. For he thought, the cunning little 
fellow, "She will run down some day: or they 

4765 may forget to wind her up, as old Grimes used 



The Water-Babies igg 

to forget to wind up his watch when he came in 
from the public-house; and then I shall be safe." 

"I was wound up once and for all, so long ago, 
that I forget all about it." 

"Dear me," said Tom, "you must have been 4770 
made a long time!" 

"I never was made, my child; and I shall 
go for ever and ever ; for I am as old as Eternity, 
and yet as young as Time." 

And there came over the lady's face a very 4775 
curious expression — very solemn, and very sad; 
and yet very, very sweet. And she looked up and 
away, as if she were gazing through the sea, 
and through the sky, at something far, far off ; and 
as she did so, there came such a quiet, tender, «8o 
patient, hopeful smile over her face that Tom 
thought for the moment that she did not look 
ugly at all. And no more she did; for she was 
like a great many people who have not a pretty 
feature in their faces, and yet are lovely to behold, 4735 
and draw little children's hearts to them at once ; 
because though the house is plain enough, yet 
from the windows a beautiful and good spirit is 
looking forth. 

And Tom smiled in her face, she looked so 4790 
pleasant for the moment. And the strange 
fairy smiled too, and said : 

"Yes. You thought me very ugly just now, 
did you not?" 



200 The Water-Babies 

4795 Tom hung down his head, and got very red 
about the ears. 

"And I am very ugly. I am the ugliest fairy 
in the world; and I shall be, till people behave 
themselves as they ought to do. And then I 

48oo shall grow as handsome as my sister, who is the 
loveliest fairy in the world ; and her name is Mrs. 
Doasyouwouldbedoneby. So she begins where I 
end, and I begin where she ends ; and those who 
will not listen to her must listen to me, as you will 

4805 see. Now, all of you run away, except Tom ; and 
he may stay and see what I am going to do. It 
will be a very good warning for him to begin 
with, before he goes to school. 

"Now, Tom, every Friday I come down here 

48io and call up all who have ill-used little children and 
serve them as they served the children." 

And at that Tom was frightened, and crept 
under a stone; which made the two crabs who 
lived there very angry, and frightened their 

48i5 friend the butter-fish into flapping hysterics: but 
he would not move for them. 

And first she called up all the doctors who give 
little children so much physic (they were most of 
them old ones ; for the young ones have learnt bet- 

4820 ter, all but a few army surgeons, who still fancy 
that a baby's inside is much like a Scotch grena- 
dier's) , and she set them all in a row ; and very rue- 
ful they looked ; for they knew what was coming. 



The Water-Babies 201 

And first she pulled all their teeth out; and 
then she bled them all round : and then she dosed 4925 
them with calomel, and jalap, and salts and senna, 
and brimstone and treacle; and horrible faces 
they made; and then she gave them a great 
emetic of mustard and water, and no basons; 
and began all over again; and that was the way483o 
she spent the morning. 

And then she called up a whole troop of foolish 
ladies, who pinch up their children's waists and 
toes; and she laced them all up in tight stays, 
so that they were choked and sick, and their noses 4835 
grew red, and their hands and feet swelled; and 
then she crammed their poor feet into the most 
dreadfully tight boots, and made them all dance, 
which they did most clumsily indeed; and then 
she asked them how they liked it ; and when they wo 
said not at all, she let them go: because they 
had only done it out of foolish fashion, fancying 
it was for their children's good, as if wasps' waists 
and pigs' toes could be pretty, or wholesome, or 
of any use to anybody. 4345 

Then she called up all the careless nursery- 
maids, and stuck pins into them all over, and 
wheeled them about in perambulators with tight 
straps across their stomachs and their heads and 
arms hanging over the side, till they were quite 4350 
sick and stupid, and would have had sun-strokes : 
but, being under the water, they could only have 



202 The Water-Babies 

water-strokes; which, I assure you, are nearly 
as bad, as you will find if you try to sit under a 

4855 mill-wheel. And mind — when you hear a rum- 
bling at the bottom of the sea, sailors will tell you 
that it is a ground-swell: but now you know 
better. It is the old lady wheeling the maids 
about in perambulators. 

4860 And by that time she was so tired, she had to 
go to luncheon. 

And after luncheon she set to work again, and 
called up all the cruel schoolmasters — whole 
regiments and brigades of them; and when she 

4865 saw them, she frowned most terribly, and set 
to work in earnest, as if the best part of the day's 
work was to come. More than half of them were 
nasty, dirty, frowzy, grubby, smelly old monks, 
who, because they dare not hit a man of their 

4870 own size, amused themselves with beating little 
children instead; as you may see in the picture 
of old Pope Gregory (good man and true though 
he was, when he meddled with things which he 
did understand), teaching children to sing their 

4875 fa-fa-mi-fa with a cat-o'-nine tails under his 
chair: but, because they never had any children 
of their own, they took into their heads (as some 
folks do still) that they were the only people in 
the world who knew how to manage children: 

4880 and 1;hey first brought into England, in the old 
Anglo-Saxon times, the fashion of treating free 



The Water-Babies 207 

boys, and girls too, worse than you would treat 
a dog or a horse: but Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid 
has caught them all long ago; and given them 
many a taste of their own rods; and much good^ss 
may it do them. 

And she boxed their ears, and thumped them 
over the head with rulers, and pandied their hands 
with canes, and told them that they told stories, 
and were this and that bad sort of people; and<89o 
the more they were very indignant, and stood 
upon their honour, and declared they told the 
truth, the more she declared they were not, and 
that they were only telling lies; and at last she 
birched them all round soundly with her great « 95 
birch-rod and set them each an imposition of 
three hundred thousand lines of Hebrew to learn 
by heart before she came back next Friday. And 
at that they all cried and howled so, that their 
breaths came all up through the sea like bubbles < 9 oo 
out of soda-water; and that is one reason of the 
bubbles in the sea. There are others: but that 
is the one which principally concerns little boys. 
And by that time she was so tired that she was 
glad to stop; and, indeed, she had done a very«05 
good day's work. 

Tom did not quite dislike the old lady : but he 
could not help thinking her a little spiteful— 
and no wonder if she was, poor old soul; for if 
she has to wait to grow handsome till people do«io 




^^gg^jag 



"She boxed their ears, and thumped them over the head with rulers" 

[204] 



The Water-Babies 20$ 

as they would be done by, she will have to wait 
a very long time. 

Poor old Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid ! she has a 
great deal of hard work before her, and had better 
have been born a washerwoman, and stood over 4915 
a tub all day : but, you see, people cannot always 
choose their own profession. 

But Tom longed to ask her one question ; and 
after all, whenever she looked at him, she did 
not look cross at all ; and now and then there was 4920 
a funny smile in her face, and she chuckled to 
herself in a way which gave Tom courage, and 
at last he said : 

'Tray, ma'am, may I ask you a question?" 
"Certainly, my little dear." 4925 

"Why don't you bring all the bad masters 
here and serve them out too ? The butties that 
knock about the poor collier-boys; and the 
nailers that file off their lads' noses and ham- 
mer their fingers ; and all the master sweeps, 4930 
like my master Grimes? I saw him fall into 
the water long ago ; so I surely expected he would 
have been here. I'm sure he was bad enough 
to me." 

Then the old lady looked so very stern that 4935 
Tom was quite frightened, and sorry that he had 
been so bold. But she was not angry with him. 
She only answered, "I look after them all the 
week round; and they are in a very different 



206 The Water-Babies 

4940 place from this, because they knew that they 
were doing wrong.' ' 

She spoke .very quietly; but there was some- 
thing in her voice which made Tom tingle from 
head to foot, as if he had got into a shoal of 

4945 sea-nettles. 

"But these people," she went on, "did not 
know that they were doing wrong: they were 
only stupid and impatient; and therefore I only 
punish them till they become patient, and learn 

4950 to use their common sense like reasonable beings. 
But as for chimney-sweeps, and collier-boys, 
and nailer lads, my sister has set good people 
to stop all that sort of thing; and very much 
obliged to her I am; for if she could only stop 

4955 the cruel masters from ill-using poor children, 
I should grow handsome at least a thousand 
years sooner. And now do you be a good boy, 
and do as you would be done by, which they 
did not; and then, when my sister, Madame 

496oDoasyouwouldbedoneby, comes on Sunday, per- 
haps she will take notice of you, and teach you 
how to behave. She understands that better 
than I do." And so she went. 

Tom was very glad to hear that there was no 

4965 chance of meeting Grimes again, though he was 
a little sorry for him, considering that he used 
sometimes to give him the leavings of the beer: 
but he determined to be a very good boy all 



The Water-Babies 207 

Saturday; and he was; for he never frightened 
one crab, nor tickled any live corals, nor put stones wo 
into the sea-anemones' mouths, to make them 
fancy they had got a dinner; and when Sunday 
morning came, sure enough, Mrs. Doasyou- 
wouldbedoneby came too. Whereat all the little 
children began dancing and clapping their hands, 4975 
and Tom danced too with all his might. 

And as for the pretty lady, I cannot tell you 
what the colour of her hair was, or of her eyes : no 
more could Tom ; for, when any one looks at her, 
all they can think of is, that she has the sweet- 4980 
est, kindest, tenderest, funniest, merriest face 
they ever saw, or want to see. But Tom saw 
that she was a very tall woman, as tall as her 
sister: but instead of being gnarly, and horny, 
and scaly, and prickly, like her, she was the^ss 
most nice, soft, fat, smooth, pussy, cuddly, 
delicious creature who ever nursed a baby; and 
she understood babies thoroughly, for she had 
plenty of her own, whole rows and regiments of 
them, and has to this day. And all her delight 4990 
was, whenever she had a spare moment, to play 
with babies, in which she showed herself a woman 
of sense; for babies are the best company, and 
the pleasantest playfellows, in the world ; at least, 
so all the wise people in the world think. And 4905 
therefore when the children saw her, they natur- 
ally all caught hold of her, and pulled her till she 



208 The Water-Babies 

sat down on a stone, and climbed into her lap, 
and clung round her neck, and caught hold of her 

5000 hands; and then they all put their thumbs into 
their mouths, and began cuddling and purring 
like so many kittens, as they ought to have done. 
While those who could get nowhere else sat down 
on the sand, and cuddled her feet — for no one, 

5005 you know, wear shoes in the water, except horrid 
old bathing-women, who are afraid of the water- 
babies pinching their horny toes. And Tom 
stood staring at them; for he could not under- 
stand what it was all about. 

5010 "And who are you, you little darling?" she 
said. 

"Oh, that is the new baby!" they all cried, 
pulling their thumbs out of their mouths; "and 
he never had any mother," and they all put their 

5015 thumbs back again, for they did not wish to lose 
any time. 

"Then I will be his mother, and he shall have 
the very best place; so get out, all of you, this 
moment." 

5020 And she took up two great armfuls of babies — 
nine hundred under one arm, and thirteen hun- 
dred under the other— and threw them away, 
right and left, into the water. But they minded 
it no more than the naughty boys in Struwelpeter 

5025 minded when St. Nicholas dipped them in his 
inkstand ; and did not even take their thumbs 



The Water-Babies 20Q 

out of their mouths, but came paddling and 
wriggling back to her like so many tadpoles, till 
you could see nothing of her from head to foot 
for the swarm of little babies. 5030 

But she took Tom in her arms, and laid him 
in the softest place of all, and kissed him, and 
patted him, and talked to him, tenderly and low, 
such things as he had never heard before in his 
life; and Tom looked up into her eyes, and loved 5035 
her, and loved, till he fell fast asleep from pure love. 

And when he woke she was telling the children 
a story. And what story did she tell them ? One 
story she told them, which begins every Christ- 
mas Eve, and yet never ends at all for ever andso4o 
ever ; and, as she went on, the children took their 
thumbs out of their mouths and listened quite 
seriously ; but not sadly at all ; for she never told 
them anything sad; and Tom listened too, and 
never grew tired of listening. And he listened 5045 
so long that he fell fast asleep again, and, when 
he woke, the lady was nursing him still. 

"Don't go away," said little Tom. "This is so 
nice v I never had any one to cuddle me before." 

"Don't go away," said all the children; "you 5050 
have not sung us one song." 

"Well, I have time for only one. So what shall 
it be?" 

"The doll you lost! The doll you lost!" cried 
all the babies at once. 50f5 



210 The Water-Babies 

So the strange fairy sang: 

I once had a sweet little doll, dears, 

The prettiest doll in the world; 
Her cheeks were so red and so white, dears, 
5060 And her hair was so charmingly curled. 

But I lost my poor little doll, dears, 

As I played in the heath one day; 
And I cried for her more than a week, dears; 

But I never could find where she lay. 

sees I found my poor little doll, dears, 
As I played in the heath one day: 
Folks say she is terribly changed, dears, 

For her paint is all washed away, 
And her arm trodden off by the cows, dears, 
5070 And her hair not the least bit curled ; 

Yet, for old sakes' sake she is still, dears, 
The prettiest doll in the world. 

What a silly song for a fairy to sing ! 

And what silly water-babies to be quite 
5075 delighted at it! 

Well, but you see they have not the advantage 
of Aunt Agitate's Arguments in the sea-land 
down below. 

"Now," said the fairy to Tom, "will you be a 
5080 good boy for my sake, and torment no more sea- 
beasts till I come back?" 

"And you will cuddle me again?" said poor 
little Tom. 



The Water-Babies 



211 



"Of course I will, you little duck. I should 
like to take you with me and cuddle you alhoss 
the way, only I must not"; and away she went. 

So Tom really tried to be a good boy, and 
tormented no sea-beasts after that as long as he 
lived; and he is quite alive, I assure you, still. 

Oh, how good little boys ought to be whosooo 
have kind pussy mammas to cuddle them and tell 
them stories; and how afraid they ought to be 
of growing naughty, and bringing tears into their 
mammas' pretty eyes! 




Thou little child, yet glorious in the night 
Of heaven-born freedom on thy Being's height, 
Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke 
The Years to bring the inevitable yoke — 
Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife? 
Full soon thy soul shall have her earthly freight, 
And custom lie upon thee with a weight 
Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life. 

Wordsworth. 



CHAPTER VI 

HERE I come to the very saddest part of 5095 
all my story. I know some people will 
only laugh at it, and call it much ado about 
nothing. But I know one man who would not; 
and he was an officer with a pair of gray mous- 
taches as long as your arm, who said once in 5100 
company that two of the most heartrending 
sights in the world, which moved him most to 
tears, which he would do anything to prevent or 
remedy, were a child over a broken toy and a 
child stealing sweets. 51 °s 

The company did not laugh at him; his mous- 
taches were too long and too gray for that: but, 
after he was gone, they called him sentimental 
and so forth, all but one dear little old Quaker 
lady with a soul as white as her cap, who was not, 5110 
of course, generally partial to soldiers; and she 
said very quietly, like a Quaker : 

"Friends, it is borne upon my mind that that 
is a truly brave man." 

Now you may fancy that Tom was quite good, 5115 
when he had everything that he could want 01 
wish: but you would be very much mistaken. 
Being quite comfortable is a very good thing; 
but it does not make people good. Indeed, it 
sometimes makes them naughty, as it has made 5120 
the people in America; and as it made the 

[213] 



214 The Water -Babies 

people in the Bible, who waxed fat and kicked, 
like horses overfed and underworked. And I 
am very sorry to say that this happened to little 

5125 Tom. For he grew so fond of the sea-bullseyes 
and sea-lollipops that his foolish little head could 
think of nothing else : and he was always longing 
for more, and wondering when the strange lady 
would come again and give him some, and what 

5130 she would give him, and how much, and whether 
she would give him more than the others. And 
he thought of nothing but lollipops by day, and 
dreamt of nothing else by night — and what hap- 
pened then? 

5135 That he began to watch the lady to see where 
she kept the sweet things: and began hiding, 
and sneaking, and following her about, and pre- 
tending to be looking the other way, or going 
after something else, till he found out that she 

5140 kept them in a beautiful mother-of-pearl cabinet 
away in a deep crack of the rocks. 

And he longed to go to the cabinet, and yet he 
was afraid ; and then he longed again, and was less 
afraid ; and at last, by continual thinking about 

5i« it, he longed so violently that he was not afraid at 
all. And one night, when all the other children 
were asleep, and he could not sleep for thinking 
of lollipops, he crept away among the rocks, and 
got to the cabinet, and behold ! it was open. 

5150 But, when he saw all the nice things inside, 



The Water -Babies 215 

instead of being delighted, he was quite fright- 
ened, and wished he had never come there. And 
then he would only touch them, and he did ; and 
then he would only taste one, and he did ; and then 
he would only eat one, and he did; and then he 5155 
would only eat two, and then three, and so on; 
and then he was terrified lest she should come and 
catch him, and began gobbling them down so fast 
that he did not taste them, or have any pleasure 
in them; and then he felt sick, and would have 5100 
only one more; and then only one more again; 
and so on till he had eaten them all up. 

And all the while, close behind him, stood 
Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid. 

Some people may say, But why did she notsies 
keep her cupboard locked? Well, I know. It 
may seem a very strange thing, but she never 
does keep her cupboard locked; every one may 
go and taste for themselves, and fare accordingly. 
It is very odd, but so it is; and I am quite sure 5170 
that she knows best. Perhaps she wishes people 
to keep their fingers out of the fire, by having 
them burned. 

She took off her spectacles, because she did not 
like to see too much ; and in her pity she arched up ens 
her eyebrows into her very hair, and her eyes grew 
so wide that they would have taken in all the 
sorrows of the world, and filled with great big 
tears, as they too often do. 



2i The Water-Babies 

5180 But all she said was: 

"Ah, ycm poor little dear! you are just like 
all the rest." 

But she said it to herself, and Tom neither 
heard nor saw her. Now, you must not fancy 
5i85 that she was sentimental at all. If you do, and 
think that she is going to let off you, or me, or 
any human being when we do wrong, because 
she is too tender-hearted to punish us, then you 
will find yourself very much mistaken, as many 
5190 a man does every year and every day. 

But what did the strange fairy do when she 
saw all her lollipops eaten? 

Did she fly at Tom, catch him by the scruff of 
the neck, hold him, howk him, hump him, hurry 
5195 him, hit him, poke him, pull him, pinch him, 
pound him, put him in the corner, shake him, 
slap him, set him on a cold stone to reconsider 
himself, and so forth? 

Not a bit. You may watch her at work if you 
52oo know where to find her. But you will never see 
her do that. For, if she had, she knew quite well 
Tom would have fought, and kicked, and bit, and 
said bad words, and turned again that moment 
into a naughty little heathen chimney-sweep, with 
5205 his hand, like Ishmael's of old, against every 
man, and every man's hand against him. 

Did she question him, hurry him, frighten 
him, threaten him, to make him confess? Not a 



The Water -Babies 21 7 

bit. You may see her, as I said, at her" work often 
enough if you know where to look for her: but 5210 
you will never see her do that. For, if she 
had, she would have tempted him to tell lies in 
his fright ; and that would have been worse for 
him, if possible, than even becoming a heathen 
chimney-sweep again. 5215 

No. She leaves that for anxious parents and 
teachers (lazy ones, some call them), who, 
instead of giving children a fair trial, such as 
they would expect and demand for themselves, 
force them by fright to confess their own faults — 5220 
which is so cruel and unfair that no judge on the 
bench dare do it to the wickedest thief or mur- 
derer, for the good British law forbids it — ay, and 
even punish them to make them confess, which 
is so detestable a crime that it is never committed 5225 
now, save by Inquisitors, and Kings of Naples, 
and a few other wretched people of whom the 
world is weary. And then they say, "We have 
trained up the child in the way he should go, and 
when he grew up he has departed from it. Why 5230 
then did Solomon say that he would not depart 
from it?" But perhaps the way of beating, and 
hurrying, and frightening, and questioning, was 
not the way that the child should go ; for it is 
not even the way in which a colt should go if 5235 
you want to break it in and make it a quiet 
serviceable horse. 



2i8 The Water-Babies 

Some folks may say, "Ah! but the fairy does 
not need to do that if she knows everything 

6240 already." True. But, if she did not know, she 
would not surely behave worse than a British 
judge and jury; and no more should parents 
and teachers either. 

So she just said nothing at all about the 

5245 matter, not even when Tom came next day with 
the rest for sweet things. He was horribly afraid 
of coming : but he was still more afraid of staying 
away, lest any one should suspect him. He 
was dreadfully afraid, too, lest there should be 

5250 no sweets — as was to be expected, he having 
eaten them all — and lest then the fairy should 
inquire who had taken them. But, behold! she 
pulled out just as many as ever, which aston- 
ished Tom, and frightened him still more. 

5255 And, when the fairy looked him full in the 
face, he shook from head to foot: however she 
gave him his share like the rest, and he thought 
within himself that she could not have found 
him out. 

6260 But, when he put the sweets into his mouth, 
he hated the taste of them; and they made him 
so sick that he had to get away as fast as he 
could; and terribly sick he was, and very cross 
and unhappy, all the week after. 

5265 Then, when next week came, he had his share 
again ; and again the fairy looked him full in the 



The Water -Babies 2ig 

face; but more sadly than she had ever looked. 
And he could not bear the sweets : but took them 
again in spite of himself. 

And when Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby came,527Q 
he wanted to be cuddled like the rest; but she 
said very seriously: 

"I should like to cuddle you; but I cannot, 
you are so horny and prickly." 

And Tom looked at himself: and he was all 5275 
over prickles, just like a sea-egg. 

Which was quite natural; for you must know 
and believe that people's souls make their bodies 
just as a snail makes its shell (I am not joking, 
my little man; I am in serious, solemn earnest). 5280 
And therefore, when Tom's soul grew all prickly 
with naughty tempers, his body could not help 
growing prickly too, so that nobody would cuddle 
him, or play with him, or even like to look at him. 

What could Tom do now but go away and 5285 
hide in a corner and cry ? For nobody would play 
with him, and he knew full well why. 

And he was so miserable all that week that when 
the ugly fairy came and looked at him once more 
full in the face, more seriously and sadly than 5290 
ever, he could stand it no longer, and thrust the 
sweetmeats away, saying, "No, I don't want any: 
I can't bear them now," and then burst out crying, 
poor little man, and told Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid 
every word as it happened. 62m 



220 The Water-Babies 

He was horribly frightened when he had done 
so ; for he expected her to punish him very se- 
verely. But, instead, she only took him up and 
kissed him, which was not quite pleasant, for 
5300 her chin was very bristly indeed; but he was so 
lonely-hearted, he thought that rough kissing 
was better than none. 

"I will forgive you, little man," she said. "I 
always forgive every one the moment they tell 
5305 me the truth of their own accord. " 

"Then you will take away all these nasty 
prickles?" 

"That is a very different matter. You put 
them there yourself, and only you can take them 
5310 away." 

"But how can I do that?" asked Tom, crying 
afresh. 

"Well, I think it is time for you to go to school ; 
so I shall fetch you a schoolmistress, who will 
53i5 teach you how to get rid of your prickles." And 
so she went away. 

Tom was frightened at the notion of a school- 
mistress ; for he thought she would certainly come 
with a birch-rod or a cane ; but he comforted him- 
5320 self, at last, that she might be something like the 
old woman in Vendale — which she was not in the 
least; for, when the fairy brought her, she was 
the most beautiful little girl that ever was seen, 
with long curls floating behind her like a golden 



The Water-Babies 221 

cloud, and long robes floating all round her like 5325 
a silver one. 

"There he is," said the fairy; "and you must 
teach him to be good, whether you like or not." 

"I know," said the little girl; but she did not 
seem quite to like, for she put her finger in her 5330 
mouth, and looked at Tom under her brows ; and 
Tom put his finger in his mouth, and looked at 
her under his brows, for he was horribly ashamed 
of himself. 

The little girl seemed hardly to know how to 5333 
begin; and perhaps she would never have begun 
at all if poor Tom had not burst out crying, and 
begged her to teach him to be good and help him 
to cure his prickles ; and at that she grew so tender- 
hearted that she began teaching him as prettily 33*0 
as ever child was taught in the world. 

And what did the little girl teach Tom? She 
taught him, first, what you have been taught ever 
since you said your first prayers at your mother's 
knees; but she taught him much more simply. 5345 
For the lessons in that world, my child, have no 
such hard words in them as the lessons in this, 
and therefore the water-babies like then; better 
than you like your lessons, and long to learn them 
more and more; and grown men cannot puzzle 5350 
nor quarrel over their meaning, as they do here 
on land; for those lessons all rise clear and 
pure, like the Test out of Overton Pool, out 



222 The Water-Babies 

of the everlasting ground of all life and truth. 

5355 So she taught Tom every day in the week; 
only on Sundays she always went away home, 
and the kind fairy took her place. And before 
she had taught Tom many Sundays, his prickles 
had vanished quite away, and his skin was 

5360 smooth and clean again. 

"Dear me!" said the little girl; "why, I know 
you now. You are the very same little chimney- 
sweep who came into my bedroom." 

1 ' Dear me ! ' ' cried Tom. ' 'And I know you, too, 

5365 now. You are the very little white lady whom I 
saw in bed." And he jumped at her, and longed 
to hug and kiss her; but did not, remembering 
that she was a lady born; so he only jumped 
round and round her till he was quite tired. 

fi 37o And then they began telling each other all 
their story — how he had got into the water, and 
she had fallen over the rock; and how he had 
swum down to the sea, and how she had flown 
out of the window; and how this, that, and the 

5375 other, till it was all talked out: and then they 
both began over again, and I can't say which of 
the two talked fastest. 

And then they set to work at their lessons again, 
and both liked them so well that they went on 

Mao well till seven full years were past and gone. 
You may fancy that Tom was quite content 
and happy all those seven years; but the truth 



The Water-Babies 223 

is, he was not. He had always one thing on his 
mind, and that was — where little Ellie went, 
when she went home on Sundays. 'cms 

To a very beautiful place, she said. 

But what was the beautiful place like, and 
where was it? 

Ah! that is just what she could not say. And 
it is strange, but true, that no one can say; and wo 
that those who have been oftenest in it, or even 
nearest to it, can say least about it, and make 
people understand least what it is like. There 
are a good many folks about the Other-end-of- 
Nowhere (where Tom went afterwards), who ^ 
pretend to know it from north to south as well 
as if they had been penny postmen there ; but, as 
they are safe at the Other-end-of-Nowhere, nine 
hundred and ninety-nine million miles away, 
what they say cannot concern us. 5400 

But the dear, sweet, loving, wise, good, self- 
sacrificing people, who really go there, can never 
tell you anything about it, save that it is the 
most beautiful place in all the world ; and, if you 
ask them more, they grow modest, and hold their 5«5 
peace, for fear of being laughed at; and quite 
right they are. 

So all that good little Ellie could say was, that 
it was worth all the rest of the world put together. 
And of course that only made Tom the more5«o 
anxious to go likewise. 



224 The Water-Babies 

"Miss Ellie," he said at last, "I will know why 
I cannot go with you when you go home on 
Sundays, or I shall have no peace, and give you 
5415 none either." 

"You must ask the fairies that." 
So when the fairy, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, 
came next, Tom asked her. 

"Little boys who are only fit to play with 
5420 sea-beasts cannot go there," she said. "Those 
who go there must go first where they do not 
like, and do what they do not like, and help some- 
body they do not like." 
"Why, did Ellie do that?" 
5425 "Ask her." 

And Ellie blushed, and said, "Yes, Tom, I did 

not like coming here at first; I was so much 

happier at home, where it is always Sunday. 

And I was afraid of you, Tom, at first, because — 

5430 because — " 

"Because I was all over prickles? But I am 
not prickly now, am I, Miss Ellie?" 

"No," said Ellie. "I like you very much now; 
and I like coming here, too." 
5435 "And perhaps," said the fairy, "you will learn 
to like going where you don't like, and helping 
some one that you don't like, as Ellie has." 

But Tom put his finger in his mouth, and hung 
his head down; for he did not see that at all. 
5440 So when Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby came, 



The Water-Babies 22$ 

Tom asked her ; for he thought in his little head, 
She is not so strict as her sister, and perhaps she 
may let me off more easily. 

Ah, Tom, Tom, silly fellow! and yet I don't 
know why I should blame you, while so many 5445 
grown people have got the very same notion in 
their heads. 

But, when they try it, they get just the same 
answer as Tom did. For, when he asked the 
second fairy, she told him just what the first 5430 
did, and in the very same words. 

Tom was very unhappy at that. And, when 
Ellie went home on Sunday, he fretted and cried 
all day, and did not care to listen to the fairy's 
stories about good children, though they were 5455 
prettier than ever. Indeed, the more he over- 
heard of them, the less he liked to listen, because 
they were all about children who did what they 
did not like, and took trouble for other people, 
and worked to feed their little brothers and sisters 54eo 
instead of caring only for their play. And, when 
she began to tell a story about a holy child in old 
times, who was martyred by the heathen because 
it would not worship idols, Tom could bear no 
more, and ran away and hid among the rocks. 5465 

And, when Ellie came back, he was shy with 
her, because he fancied she looked down on him, 
and thought him a coward. And then he grew 
quite cross with her, because she was superior to 



226 The Water-Babies 

5470 him, and did what he could not do. And poor 
Ellie was quite surprised and sad; and at last 
Tom burst out crying ; but he would not tell her 
what was really in his mind. 

And all the while he was eaten up with curi- 

5475osity to know where Ellie went to; so that he 
began not to care for his playmates, or for the 
sea-palace or anything else. But perhaps that 
made matters all the easier for him; for he grew 
so discontented with everything round him that 

5480 he did not care to stay, and did not care where 
he went. 

"Well," he said, at last, "I am so miserable 
here, I'll go; if only you will go with me?" 
"Ah!" said Ellie, "I wish I might; but the 

5485 worst of it is, that the fairy says that you must 
go alone if you go at all. Now don't poke that 
poor crab about, Tom" (for he was feeling very 
naughty and mischievous), "or the fairy will 
have to punish you." 

5490 Tom was very nearly saying, "I don't care if 
she does" ; but he stopped himself in time. 

"I know what she wants me to do," he said, 
whining most dolefully. "She wants me to go 
after that horrid old Grimes. I don't like him, 

5495 that's certain. And if I find him, he will turn 
me into a chimney-sweep again, I know. That's 
what I have been afraid of all along." 

"No, he won't — I know as much as that. 



The Water-Babies 



227 



Nobody can turn water-babies into sweeps, or 
hurt them at all, as long as they are good." 5500 

"Ah," said naughty Tom, "I see what you 
want; you are persuading me all along to go, 
because you are tired of me, and want to get 
rid of me." 

Little Ellie opened her eyes very wide at that, 5305 
and they were all brimming over with tears. 

"Oh, Tom, Tom!" she said, very mournfully— 
and then she cried, "Oh, Tom! where are you?" 

And Tom cried, "Oh, Ellie, where are you?" 

For neither of them could see each other — 5510 
not the least.' Little Ellie vanished quite away, 
and Tom heard her voice calling him, and growing 
smaller and smaller, and fainter and fainter, 
till all was silent. 

Who was frightened then but Tom? He swam 5515 
up and down among the rocks, into all the halls 
and chambers, faster than ever he swam before, 
but could not find her. He shouted after her, 
but she did not answer; he asked all the other 
children, but they had not seen her; and at last 5520 
he went up to the top of the water and began 
crying and screaming for Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid 
— which perhaps was the best thing to do — for 
she came in a moment. 

"Oh!" said Tom. "Oh dear, oh dear! I have 5525 
been naughty to Ellie, and I have killed her — 
I know I have killed her." 



228 The Water-Babies 

"Not quite that," said the fairy; "but I have 
sent her away home, and she will not come back 

5530 again for I do not know how long." 

And at that Tom cried so bitterly that the 
salt sea was swelled with his tears, and the tide 
was .3,954,620,819 of an inch higher than it had 
been the day before: but perhaps that was 

5535 owing to the waxing of the moon. It may have 
been so; but it is considered right in the new 
philosophy, you know, to give spiritual causes 
for physical phenomena — especially in parlour- 
tables ; and, of course, physical causes for spiritual 

5540 ones, like thinking, and praying, and knowing 
right from wrong. And so they odds it till it 
comes even, as folks say down in Berkshire. 

"How cruel of you to send Ellie away!" sobbed 
Tom. "However, I will find her again, if I go 

5545 to the world's end to look for her." 

The fairy did not slap Tom, and tell him to 
hold his tongue: but she took him on her lap 
very kindly, just as her sister would have done ; 
and put him in mind how it was not her fault, be- 

5550 cause she was wound up inside, like watches, and 
could not help doing things whether she liked 
or not. And then she told him how he had been 
in the nursery long enough, and must go out 
now and see the world, if he intended ever to 

5555 be a man; and how he must go all alone by 
himself, as every one else that ever was born has 



The Water-Babies 22Q 

to go, and see with' his own eyes, and smell with 
his own nose, and make his own bed and lie on 
it, and burn his own fingers if he put them into 
the fire. And then she told him how many finesseo 
things there were to be seen in the world, and 
what an odd, curious, pleasant, orderly, respec- 
table, well-managed, and, on the whole, success- 
ful (as, indeed, might have been expected) sort 
of a place it was, if people would only be tolerably 5555 
brave and honest and good in it; and then she 
told him not to be afraid of anything he met, for 
nothing would harm him if he remembered all 
his lessons, and did what he knew was right. 
And at last she comforted poor little Tom so 5570 
much that he was quite eager to go, and wanted 
to set out that minute. "Only," he said, "if I 
might see Ellie once before I went ! ' ' 

"Why do you want that?" 

"Because — because I should be so much hap- 5575 
pier if I thought she had forgiven me." 

And in the twinkling of an eye there stood 
Ellie, smiling, and looking so happy that Tom 
longed to kiss her; but was still afraid it would 
not be respectful, because she was a lady born, ssso 

"I am going, Ellie!" said Tom. "I am going, 
if it is to the world's end. But I don't like going 
at all, and that's the truth." 

"Pooh! pooh! pooh!" said the fairy. "You 
will like it very well indeed, you little rogue, kss 



2 jo The Water-Babies 

and you know that at the bottom of your heart. 
But if you don't, I will make you like it. Come 
here, and see what happens to people who do 
only what is pleasant." 

5590 And she took out of one of her cupboards 
(she had all sorts of mysterious cupboards in the 
cracks of the rocks) the most wonderful water- 
proof book, full of such photographs as never 
were seen. For she had found out photography 

5595 (and this is a fact) more than 13,598,000 years 
before anybody was born; and, what is more, 
her photographs did not merely represent light 
and shade, as ours do, but colour also, and all 
colours, as you may see if you, look at a black- 

56oo cock's tail, or a butterfly's wing, or indeed most 

things that are or can be, so to speak. And 

therefore her photographs were very curious and 

' famous, and the children looked with great delight 

for the opening of the book. 

5605 And on the title-page was written, "The 
History of the great and famous nation of the 
Doasyoulikes, who came away from the country 
of Hardwork, because they wanted to play on 
the Jews' harp all day long." 

56io In the first picture they saw these Doasyoulikes 
living in the land of Readymade, at the foot 
of the Happy-go-lucky Mountains, where flap- 
doodle grows wild; and if you want to know 
what that is, you must read Peter Simple. 



The Water-Babies 231 

They lived very much such a life as those jolly 5615 
old Greeks in Sicily, whom you may see painted 
on the ancient vases, and really there seemed to 
be great excuses for them, for they had no need 
to work. 

Instead of houses they lived in the beautiful 5020 
caves of tufa, and bathed in the warm springs 
three times a day; and, as for clothes, it was so 
warm there that the gentlemen walked about 
in little beside a cocked hat and a pair of straps, 
or some light summer tackle of that kind; and 5625 
the ladies all gathered gossamer in autumn 
(when they were not too lazy) to make their 
winter dresses. 

They were very fond of music, but it was too 
much trouble to learn the piano or the violin, sew 
and as for dancing, that would have been too 
great an exertion. So they sat on ant-hills all 
day long, and played on the Jews' harp; and, ' 
if the ants bit them, why they just got up and 
went to the next ant-hill, till they were bitten 5635 
there likewise. 

And they sat under the flapdoodle-trees, and 
let the flapdoodle drop into their mouths; and 
under the vines, and squeezed the grape-juice 
down their throats; and, if any little pigs ran sew 
about ready roasted, crying, "Come and eat 
me," as was their fashion in that country, they 
waited till the pigs ran against their mouths, 



232 The Water-Babies 

and then took a bite, and were content, just as 
5645 so many oysters would have been. 

They needed no weapons, for no enemies ever 
came near their land; and no tools, for every- 
thing was readymade to their hand; and the 
stern old fairy Necessity never came near them 
5650 to hunt them up, and make them use their 
wits, or die. 

And so on, and so on, and so on, till there were 
never such comfortable, easy-going, happy-go- 
lucky people in the world. 
5655 "Well, that is a jolly life," said Tom. 

"You think. so?" said the fairy. "Do you see 
that great peaked mountain there behind," said 
the fairy, "with smoke coming out of its top?" 
"Yes." 
5660 "And do you see all those ashes, and slag, and 
cinders lying about?" 
"Yes." 

"Then turn over the next five hundred years, 
and you will see what happens next." 
5665 And behold the mountain had blown up like a 
barrel of gunpowder, and then boiled over like 
a kettle; whereby one-third of the Doasyoulikes 
were blown into the air, and another third were 
smothered in ashes; so that there was only one- 
5670 third left. 

"You see," said the fairy, "what comes of 
living on a burning mountain." 



The Water-Babies 233 

"Oh, why did you not warn them?" said 
little Ellie. 

"I did warn them all that I could. I let the 5675 
smoke come out of the mountain; and wherever 
there is smoke there is fire. And I laid the 
ashes and cinders all about; and wherever there 
are cinders, cinders may be again. But they 
did not like to face facts, my dears, as very fewseso 
people do; and so they invented a cock-and-bull 
story, which, I am sure, I never told them, that 
the smoke was the breath of a giant, whom some 
gods or other had buried under the mountain; 
and that the cinders were what the dwarfs roasted sees 
the little pigs whole with; and other nonsense 
of that kind. And, when folks are in that 
humour, I cannot teach them, save by the good 
old birch-rod." 

And then she turned over the next five 5690 
hundred years: and there were the remnant of 
the Doasyoulikes, doing as they liked, as before. 
They were too lazy to move away from the 
mountain ; so they said, If it has blown up once, 
that is all the more reason that it should not 5695 
blow up again. And they were few in number: 
but they only said, The more the merrier, but 
the fewer the better fare. However, that was 
not quite true; for all the flapdoodle-trees were 
killed by the volcano, and they had eaten all 5700 
the roast pigs, who, of course, could not be 



234 Th e Water-Babies 

expected to have little ones. So they had to 
live very hard, on nuts and roots which they 
scratched out of the ground with sticks. Some 

5705 of them talked of sowing corn, as their ancestors 
used to do, before they came into the land of 
Readymade ; but they had forgotten how to make 
ploughs (they had forgotten even how to make 
Jews' harps by this time), and had eaten all the 

5710 seed-corn which they brought out of the land 
of Hardwork years since; and of course it was 
too much trouble to go away and find more. 
So they lived miserably on roots and nuts, and 
all the weakly little children had great stomachs, 

5715 and then died. 

"Why," said Tom, "they are growing no 
better than savages." 

"And look how ugly they are all getting," 
said Ellie. 

5720 "Yes; when people live on poor vegetables 

instead of roast beef and plum-pudding, their 

jaws grow large, and their lips grow coarse, like 

the poor Paddies who eat potatoes." 

And she turned over the next five hundred 

5725 years. And there they were all living up in trees, 

and making nests to keep off the rain. And 

underneath the trees lions were prowling about. 

"Why," said Ellie, "the lions seem to have 

eaten a good many of them, for there are very 

5730 few left now." 



The Water-Babies 235 

"Yes," said the fairy; "you see it was only 
the strongest and most active ones who could 
climb the trees, and so escape." 

"But what great, hulking, broad-shouldered 
chaps they are," said Tom; "they are a rough lot5735 
as ever I saw." 

"Yes, they are getting very strong now; for 
the ladies will not marry any but the very 
strongest and fiercest gentlemen, who can help 
them up the trees out of the lions' way." 5740 

And she turned over the next five hundred 
years. And in that they were fewer still, and 
stronger, and fiercer ; but their feet had changed 
shape very oddly, for they laid hold of the 
branches with their great toes, as if they had 5745 
been thumbs, just as a Hindoo tailor uses his 
toes to thread his needle. 

The children were very much surprised, and 
asked the fairy whether that was her doing. 

"Yes, and no," she said smiling. "It was only 5750 
those who could use their feet as well as their 
hands who could get a good living: or, indeed, 
get married ; so that they got the best of every- 
thing, and starved out all the rest; and those 
who are left keep up a regular breed of toe- 5755 
thumb-men, as a breed of short-horns, or skye- 
terriers, or fancy pigeons is kept up." 

"But there is a hairy one among them," said 
Ellie. 



236 The Water -Babies 

5760 "Ah!" said the fairy, "that will be a great 
man in his time, and chief of all the tribe.' ' 

And, when she turned over the next five 
hundred years, it was true. 

For this hairy chief had had hairy children, 
5765 and they hairier children still; and every one 
wished to marry hairy husbands, and have 
hairy children too; for the climate was growing 
so damp that none but the hairy ones could live : 
all the rest coughed and sneezed, and had sore 
5770 throats, and went into consumptions, before 
they could grow up to be men and women. 

Then the fairy turned over the next five 
hundred years. And they were fewer still. 

"Why, there is one on the ground picking up 

5775 roots," said Ellie, "and he cannot walk upright." 

No more he could; for in the same way that 

the shape of their feet had altered, the shape 

of their backs had altered also. 

"Why," cried Tom, "I declare they are all 
5780 apes." 

"Something fearfully like it, poor foolish 
creatures," said the fairy. "They are grown so 
stupid now, that they can hardly think : for none 
of them have used their wits for many hundred 
5785 years. They have almost forgotten, too, how 
to talk. For each stupid child forgot some of 
the words it heard from its stupid parents, and 
had not wits enough to make fresh words for 



The Water-Babies 237 

itself. Besides, they are grown so fierce and 
suspicious and brutal that they keep out of 5790 
each other's way, and mope and sulk in the 
dark forests, never hearing each other's voice, 
till they have forgotten almost what speech is 
like. I am afraid they will all be apes very soon, 
and all by doing only what they liked." 5795 

And in the next five hundred years they were 
all dead and gone, by bad food and wild beasts 
and hunters; all except one tremendous old 
fellow with jaws like a jack, who stood full 
seven feet high; and M. Du Chaillu came up tossoo 
him, and shot him, as he stood roaring and 
thumping his breast. And he remembered that 
his ancestors had once been men, and tried to 
say, "Am I not a man and a brother?" but had 
forgotten how to use his tongue; and then hessos 
had tried to call for a doctor, but he had forgotten 
the word for one. So all he said was "Ubboboo !" 
and died. 

And that was the end of the great and jolly 
nation of the Doasyoulikes. And, when Tomssio 
and Ellie came to the end of the book, they 
looked very sad and solemn; and they had good 
reason so to do, for they really fancied that the 
men were apes, and never thought, in their 
simplicity, of asking whether the creatures hadssis 
hippopotamus majors in their brains or not; in 
which case, as you have been told already, they 



2j8 The Water-Babies 

could not possibly have been apes, though they 
were more apish than the apes of all aperies. 

5820 ''But could you not have saved them from 
becoming apes?" said little Ellie, at last. 

"At first, my dear; if only they would have 
behaved like men, and set to work to do what 
they did not like. But the longer they waited, 

5825 and behaved like the dumb beasts, who only do 
what they like, the stupider and clumsier they 
grew ; till at last they were past all cure, for they 
had thrown their own wits away. It is such 
things as this that help to make me so ugly, 

5830 that I know not when I shall grow fair." 

"And where are they all now?" asked Ellie. 
"Exactly where they ought to be, my dear." 
"Yes!" said the fairy, solemnly, half to herself, 
as she closed the wonderful book. "Folks say 

5835 now that I can make beasts into men, by circum- 
stance, and selection, and competition, and so 
forth. Well, perhaps they are right ; and perhaps, 
again, they are wrong. That is one of the seven 
things which I am forbidden to tell, till the 

5840 coming of the Cocqcigrues; and, at all events, 
it is no concern of theirs. Whatever their 
ancestors were, men they are; and I advise 
them to behave as such, and act accordingly. 
But let them recollect this, that there are two 

5845 sides to every question, and a downhill as well 
as an uphill road; and, if I can turn beasts into 



The Water-Babies 



239 



men, I can, by the same laws of circumstance, 
and selection, and competition, turn men into 
beasts. You were very near being turned into 
a beast once or twice, little Tom. Indeed, ifssso 
you had not made up your mind to go on this 
journey, and see the world, like an Englishman, 
I am not sure but that you would have ended 
as an eft in a pond." 

"Oh, dear me!" said Tom; "sooner than that, 5855 
and be all over slime, I'll go this minute, if it is 
to the world's end." 




And Nature, the old Nurse, took 

The child upon her knee, 
Saying, "Here is a story book 

Thy father hath written for thee. 

"Come wander with me," she said, 

"Into regions yet untrod, 
And read what is still unread 

In the Manuscripts of God." 

And he wandered away and away 
. With Nature, the dear old Nurse, 
Who sang to him night and day 
The rhymes of the universe. 

Longfellow. 



5860 



CHAPTER VII 

"]\J 0W '" said Tom ' l l am ready t0 be ° ff ' 
£\ if it's to the world's end." 

"Ah!" said the fairy, "that is a brave, 

good boy. But you must go farther than the 

world's end, if you want to find Mr. Grimes; for 

he is at the Other-end-of -No where. You must go 

to Shiny Wall, and through the white gate that 

never was opened; and then you will come to 5865 

Peacepool, and Mother Carey's Haven, where the 

good whales go when they die. And there Mother 

Carey will tell you the way to the Other-end-of - 

Nowhere, and there you will find Mr. Grimes." 

"Oh, dear!" said Tom. "But I do not knowssro 
my way to Shiny Wall, or where it is at all." 

"Little boys must take the trouble to find out 
things for themselves, or they will never grow 
to be men; so that you must ask all the beasts 
in the sea and the birds in the air, and if you 5375 
have been good to them, some of them will tell 
you the way to Shiny Wall." 

"Well," said Tom, "it will be a long journey, 
so I had better start at once. Good-bye, Miss 
Ellie ; you know I am getting a big boy, and 1 5sso 
must go out and see the world." 

"I know you must," said Ellie; "but you will 
not forget me, Tom. I shall wait here till you 



come." 



[241] 



242 The Water-Babies 

5885 And she shook hands with him, and bade him 
good-bye. Tom longed very much again to kiss 
her; but he thought it would not be respect- 
ful, considering she was a lady born; so he 
promised not to forget her: but his little whirl- 

5890 about of a head was so full of the notion of 
going out to see the world, that it forgot her 
in five minutes: however, though his head for- 
got her, I am glad to say his heart did not. 
So he asked all the beasts in the sea, and all 

5895 the birds in the air, but none of them knew 
the way to Shiny Wall. For why? He was still 
too far down south. 

Then he met a ship, far larger than he had 
ever seen — a gallant ocean-steamer, with a long 

5900 cloud of smoke trailing behind; and he wondered 
how she went on without sails, and swam up to 
her to see. A school of dolphins were running 
races round and round her, going three feet for 
her one, and Tom asked them the way to Shiny 

5905 Wall: but they did not know. Then he tried 
to find out how she moved, and at last he 
saw her screw, and was so delighted with it 
that he played under her quarter all day, till 
he nearly had his nose knocked off by the fans, 

5910 and thought it time to move. Then he watched 
the sailors upon deck, and the ladies, with 
their bonnets and parasols: but none of them 
could see him, because their eyes were not 



The Water-Babies 243 

opened, — as, indeed, most people's eyes are not. 

At last there came out into the quarter- 5915 
gallery a very pretty lady, in deep black widow's 
weeds, and in her arms a baby. She leaned over 
the quarter-gallery, and looked back and back 
toward England far away; and as she looked 
she sang: 5020 



Soft soft wind, from out the sweet south sliding, 
Waft thy silver cloud-webs athwart the summer sea; 

Thin thin threads of mist on dewy fingers twining 
Weave a veil of dappled gauze to shade my babe and me. 

II 

Deep deep Love, within thine own abyss abiding, 5925 
Pour Thyself abroad, O Lord, on earth and air and 
sea; 
Worn weary hearts within Thy holy temple hiding, 
Shield from sorrow, sin, and shame my helpless babe 
and me. 

Her voice was so soft and low, and the music 
of the air so sweet, that Tom could have listened 5930 
to it all day. But as she held the baby over the 
gallery rail, to show it the dolphins leaping and 
the water gurgling in the ship's wake, lo! and 
behold, the baby saw Tom. 

He was quite sure of that; for when their 5935 
eyes met, the baby smiled and held out his 
hands; and Tom smiled and held out his hands 



244 The Water-Babies 

too; and the baby kicked and leaped, as if it 

wanted to jump overboard to him. 
5940 "What do you see, my darling?" said the 

lady; and her eyes followed the baby's till she 

too caught sight of Tom, swimming about among 

the foam-beads below. 

She gave a little shriek and start; and then 
5945 she said, quite quietly, "Babies in the sea? Well, 

perhaps it is the happiest place for them"; and 

waved her hand to Tom, and cried, "Wait a little, 

darling, only a little : and perhaps we shall go with 

you and be at rest." 
5950 And at that an old nurse, all in black, came 

out and talked to her, and drew her in. And 

Tom turned away northward, sad and wondering ; 

and watched the great steamer slide away into 

the dusk, and the lights on board peep out one 
5955 by one, and die out again, and the. long bar of 

smoke fade away into the evening mist, till all 

was out of sight. 

And he swam northward again, day after day, 

till at last he met the King of the Herrings, 
5960 with a curry-comb growing out of his nose, and a 

sprat in his mouth for a cigar, and asked him 

the way to Shiny Wall; so he bolted his sprat 

head foremost, and said : 

"If I were you, young gentleman, I should go 
5965 to the Allalonestone, and ask the last of the 

Gairfowl. She is of a very ancient clan, very 




"At last he met the King of the Herrings 



246 The Water-Babies 

nearly as ancient as my own; and knows a good 
deal which these modern upstarts don't, as ladies 
of old houses are likely to do." 

6970 Tom asked his way to her, and the King of 
the Herrings told him very kindly, for he was 
a courteous old gentleman of the old school, 
though he was horribly ugly, and strangely 
bedizened too, like the old dandies who lounge 

6»75 in the club-house windows. 

But just as Tom had thanked him and set off, 
he called after him: "Hi! I say, can you fly?" 
"I never tried," says Tom. "Why?" 
"Because, if you can, I should advise you to 

5880 say nothing to the old lady about it. There; 
take a hint. Good-bye." 

And away Tom went for seven days and 
seven nights due north-west, till he came to a 
great codbank, the like of which he never saw 

6885 before. The great cod lay below in tens of 
thousands, and gobbled shell-fish all day long; 
and the blue sharks roved above in hundreds, 
and gobbled them when they came up. So they 
ate, and ate, and ate each other, as they had 

6880 done since the making of the world; for no man 
had come here yet to catch them, and find out 
how rich old Mother Carey is. 

And there he saw the last of the Gairfowl, 
standing up on the Allalonestone, all alone. And 

6995 a very grand old lady she was, full three feet 



The Water-Babies 247 

high, and bolt upright, like some old Highland 
chieftainess. She had on a black velvet gown, 
and a white pinner and apron, and a very high" 
bridge to her nose (which is a sure mark of high 
breeding), and a large pair of white spectacles eooo 
on it, which made her look rather odd: but it 
was the ancient fashion of her house. 

And instead of wings, she had two little 
feathery arms, with which she fanned herself, 
and complained of the dreadful heat; and sheeoos 
kept on crooning an old song to herself, which 
she learnt when she was a little baby-bird, long 
ago— 

Two little birds they sat on a stone, 
One swam away, and then there was one, eoio 

With a fal-lal-la-lady. 

The other swam after, and then there was none, 
And so the poor stone was left all alone ; 
With a fal-lal-la lady. 

It was "flew" away, properly, and not "swam"eoi5 
away: but, as she could not fly, she had a right 
to alter it. However, it was a very fit song for 
her to sing, because she was a lady herself. 

Tom came up to her very humbly, and made 
his bow ; and the first thing she said was — 6020 

' ' Have you wings ? Can you fly?" 

"Oh dear, no, ma'am; I should not think of 
such a thing," said cunning little Tom. 




'There he saw the last of the Gairfowl, standing up on the 

Allalonlstone, all alone" 

[248] 



The Water-Babies 249 

"Then I shall hav.e great pleasure in talking 
to you, my dear. It is quite refreshing nowa-6025 
days to see anything without wings. They 
must all have wings, forsooth, now, every new 
upstart sort of bird, and fly. What can they 
want with flying, and raising themselves above 
their proper station in life? In the days of myeo3o 
ancestors no birds ever thought of having wings, 
and did very well without; and now they all 
laugh at me because I keep to the good old 
fashion. Why, the very marrocks and dovekies 
have got wings, the vulgar creatures, and pooreo35 
little ones enough they are; and my own cousins 
too, the razor-bills, who are gentlefolk born, and 
ought to know better than to ape their inferiors." 

And so she was running on, while Tom tried 
to get in a word edgeways; and at last he did, 6040 
when the old lady got out of breath, and began, 
fanning herself again; and then he asked if she 
knew the way to Shiny Wall. 

"Shiny Wall? Who should know better than 
I? We all came from Shiny Wall, thousands ofeo45 
years ago, when it was decently cold, and the 
climate was fit for gentlefolk; but now, what 
with the heat, and what with these vulgar- 
winged things who fly up and down and eat 
everything, so that gentlepeople's hunting is alleo5o 
spoilt, and one really cannot get one's living, 
or hardly venture off the rock for fear of being 



2 jo The Water-Babies 

flown against by some creature that would not 
have dared to come within a mile of one a thou- 

6055 sand years ago — what was I saying? Why, we 
have quite gone down in the world, my dear, 
and have nothing left but our honour. And I 
am the last of my family. A friend of mine and 
I came and settled on this rock when we were 

6060 young, to be out of the way of low people. Once 
we were a great nation, and spread over all the 
Northern Isles. But men shot us so, and 
knocked us on the head, and took our eggs — 
why, if you will believe it, they say that on the 

6065 coast of Labrador the sailors used to lay a 
plank from the rock on board the thing called 
their ship, and drive us along the plank by 
hundreds, till we tumbled down into the ship's 
waist in heaps; and then, I suppose, they ate 

6070 us, the nasty fellows! Well — but — what was I 
saying? At last, there were none of us left, 
except on the old Gairfowlskerry, just off the 
Iceland coast, up which no man could climb. 
Even there we had no peace; for one day, when 

6075 1 was quite a young girl, the land rocked, and 
the sea boiled, and the sky grew dark, and all the 
air was filled with smoke and dust, and down 
tumbled the old Gairfowlskerry into the sea. The 
dovekies and marrocks, of course, all flew away; 

6080 but we were too proud to do that. Some of us 
were dashed to pieces, and some drowned; and 



The Water-Babies 251 

those who were left got away to Eldey, and the 
dovekies tell me they are all dead now, and that 
another Gairfowlskerry has risen out of the sea 
close to the old one, but that it is such a pooreoss 
flat place that it is not safe to live on : and so here 
I am left alone." 

This was the Gairfowl's story, and, strange 
as it may seem, it is every word of it true. 

"If you only had had wings!" said Tom; "theneoAo 
you might all have flown away too." 

"Yes, young gentleman: and if people are not 
gentlemen and ladies, and forget that noblesse 
oblige, they will find it as easy to get on in the 
world as other people who don't care what theyeoas 
do. Why, if I had not recollected that noblesse 
oblige, I should not have been all alone now." 
And the poor old lady sighed. 
"How was that, ma'am?" 

"Why, my dear, a gentleman came hither eioo 
with me, and after we had been here some time, 
he wanted to marry — in fact, he actually pro- 
posed to me. Well, I can't blame him; I was 
young, and very handsome then, I don't deny: 
but you see, I could not hear of such a thing, be- aios 
cause he was my deceased sister's husband, you 
see?" 

"Of course not, ma'am," said Tom; though, 
of course, he knew nothing about it. "She was 
very much diseased, I suppose?" ©no 



252 The Water-Babies 

4 'You do not understand me, my dear. I 
mean, that being a lady, and with right and 
honourable feelings, as our house always has 
had, I felt it my duty to snub him, and howk 

ens him, and peck him continually, to keep him at 
his proper distance ; and, to tell the truth, I once 
pecked him a little too hard, poor fellow, and he 
tumbled backwards off the rock, and — really, 
it was very unfortunate, but it was not my 

8120 fault — a shark coming by saw him flapping, 
and snapped him up. And since, then I have 
lived all alone — 

With a fal-lal-la-lady. 
And soon I shall be gone, my little dear, and 

6125 nobody will miss me; and then the poor stone 
will be left all alone." 

"But, please, which is the way to Shiny Wall?" 
said Tom. 

"Oh, you must go, my little dear — you must 

6i3o go. Let me see — I am sure — that is — really, 
my poor old brains are getting quite puzzled. 
Do you know, my little dear, I am afraid, if you 
want to know, you must ask some of these 
vulgar birds about, for I have quite forgotten." 

6135 And the poor old Gairfowl began to cry tears 
of pure oil; and Tom was quite sorry for her; 
and for himself too, for he was at his wit's end 
whom to ask. 

But by there came a flock of petrels, who are 



The Water-Babies 253 ■ 

Mother Carey's own chickens; and Tom thought** 
them much prettier than Lady Gairfowl, and so 
perhaps they were ; for Mother Carey had had a 
great deal of fresh experience between the time 
that she invented the Gairfowl and the time 
that she invented them. They flitted along likens 
a flock of black swallows, and hopped and 
skipped from wave to wave, lifting up their little 
feet behind them so daintily, and whistling to 
each other so tenderly, that Tom fell in love 
with them at once, and called them to know theei5o 
way to Shiny Wall. 

"Shiny Wall? Do you want Shiny Wall? 
Then come with us, and we will show you. We 
are Mother Carey's own chickens, and she sends. 
us out over all the seas, to show the good birds 6155 
the way home." 

Tom was delighted, and swam off to them, 
after he had made his bow to the Gairfowl. But 
she would not return his bow: but held herself 
bolt upright, and wept tears of oil as she sang: eieo 

"And so the poor stone was left all alone; 
With a fal-lal-la-lady." 

But she was wrong there ; for the stone was not 
left all alone: and the next time that Tom goes 
by it, he will see a sight worth seeing. 6ie 5 

The old Gairfowl is gone already: but there are 
better things come in her place; and when Tom 



254 The Water-Babies 

comes he will see the fishing-smacks anchored 
there in hundreds, from Scotland, and from Ire- 

6170 land, and from the Orkneys, and the Shetlands, 
and from all the Northern ports, full of the 
children of the old Norse Vikings, the masters 
of the sea. And the men will be hauling in 
the great cod by thousands, till their hands are 

ens sore from the lines ; and they will be making cod- 
liver oil and guano, and salting down the fish; 
and there will be a man-of-war steamer there to 
protect them, and a lighthouse to show them 
the way; and you and I, perhaps, shall go some 

6i8o day to the Allalonestone to the great summer 

sea-fair, and dredge strange creatures such as 

. man never saw before ; and we shall hear the 

sailors boast that it is not the worst jewel in 

Queen Victoria's crown, for there are eighty 

6i85 miles of codbank, and food for all the poor 
folk in the land. That is what Tom will see, and 
perhaps you and I shall see it too. And then 
we shall not be sorry because we cannot get a 
gairfowl to stuff, much less find gairfowl enough 

ei9o to drive them into stone pens and slaughter 
them, as the old Norsemen did, or drive them 
on board along a plank till the ship was vict- 
ualled with them, as the old English and French 
rovers used to do, of whom dear old Hakluyt 

6i95 tells: but we shall remember what Mr. Tennyson 
says : how 



The Water-Babies 255 

The old order changeth, giving place to the new, 
And God fulfils Himself in many ways. 

And now Tom was all agog to start for Shiny 
Wall; but the petrels said no. They must go 0200 
first to Allfowlsness, and wait there for the 
great gathering of all the sea-birds, before they 
start for their summer breeding-places far away 
in the Northern Isles; and there they would 
be sure to find some birds which were going 6205 
to Shiny Wall: but where Allfowlsness was, he 
must promise never to tell, lest men should go 
there and shoot the birds, and stuff them, and 
put them into stupid museums, instead of leaving 
them to play and breed and work in Mother 6210 
Carey's water-garden, where they ought to be. 

So where Allfowlsness is nobody must know; 
and all that is to be said about it is, that Tom 
waited there many days; and as he waited, he 
saw a very curious sight. On the rabbit burrows 6215 
on the shore there gathered hundreds and 
hundreds of hoodie-crows, such as you see in 
Cambridgeshire. And they made such a noise, 
that Tom came on shore and went up to see 
what was the matter. 6220 

And there he found them holding their great 
caucus, which they hold every year in the North ; 
and all their stump-orators were speechifying; 
and for a tribune, the speaker stood on an old 
sheep's skull. «225 



25O The Water-Babies 

And they cawed and cawed, and boasted of all 
the clever things they had done ; how many lambs' 
eyes they had picked out, and how many dead 
bullocks they had eaten, and how many young 

6230 grouse they had swallowed whole, and how 
many grouse-eggs they had flown away with, 
stuck on the point of their bills, which is the 
hoodie-crow's particularly clever feat, of which 
he is as proud as a gipsy is of doing the hokany- 

6235 baro; and what that is, I won't tell you. 

And at last they brought out the prettiest, 
neatest young lady-crow that ever was seen, 
and set her in the middle, and all began abusing 
and vilifying, and rating, and bullyragging at 

6240 her, because she had stolen no grouse-eggs, and 
had actually dared to say that she would not 
steal any. So she was to be tried publicly by 
their laws (for the hoodies always try some 
offenders in their great yearly parliament). 

6245 And there she stood in the middle, in her black 
gown and gray hood, looking as meek and as 
neat as a Quakeress, and they all bawled at 
her at once — 

And it was in vain that she pleaded — 

6250 That she did not like grouse-eggs; 

That she could get her living very well without them; 
That she was afraid to eat them, for fear of the 
gamekeepers; 



The Water-Babies 257 

That she had not the heart to eat them, because 

the grouse were such pretty, kind, jolly birds; 6255 
And a dozen reasons more. 

For all the other scaul-crows set upon her, and 
pecked her to death there and then, before Tom 
could come to help her ; and then flew away, very 
proud of what they had done. e2eo 

Now, was not this a scandalous transaction? 

But they are true republicans, these hoodies, 
who do every one just what he likes, and make 
other people do so too ; so that, for any freedom of 
speech, thought, or action, which is allowed among 6265 
them, they might as well be American citizens of 
the new school. 

But the fairies took the good crow, and gave 
her nine new sets of feathers running, and turned 
her at last into the most beautiful bird of paradise 6270 
with a green velvet suit and a long tail, and sent 
her to eat fruit in the Spice Islands, where cloves 
and nutmegs grow. 

And Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid settled her account 
with the wicked hoodies. For, as they flew away, 0275 
what should they find but a nasty dead dog? — 
on which they all set to work, pecking and 
gobbling and cawing and quarrelling to their 
hearts' content. But the moment afterwards, 
they all threw up their bills into the air, ande2so 
gave one screech; and then turned head over 



258 The Water-Babies 

heels backward, and fell down dead, one hundred 
and twenty -three of them at once. For why? 
The fairy had told the gamekeeper in a dream, to 

6285 fill the dead dog full of strychnine; and so he did. 
And after a while the birds began to gather 
at Allfowlsness, in thousands and tens of thou- 
sands, blackening all the air; swans and brant 
geese, harlequins and eiders, harolds and gar- 

6290 ganeys, smews and goosanders, divers and loons, 
grebes and dovekies, auks and razor-bills, gannets 
and petrels, skuas and terns, with gulls beyond 
all naming or numbering ; and they paddled and 
washed and splashed and combed and brushed 

6295 themselves on the sand, till the shore was white 
with feathers ; and they quacked and clucked and 
gabbled and chattered and screamed and whooped 
as they talked over matters with their friends, 
and settled where they were to go and breed that 

63oo summer, till you might have heard them ten miles 
off ; and lucky it was for them that there was. no 
one to hear them but the old keeper, who lived 
all alone upon the Ness, in a turf hut thatched 
with heather and fringed round with great stones 

6305 slung across the roof by bent-ropes, lest the winter 
gales should blow the hut right away. But he 
never minded the birds nor hurt them, because 
they were not in season; indeed, he minded but 
two things in the whole world, and those were, 

63io his Bible and his grouse; for he was as good an 



The Water-Babies 2$g 

old Scotchman as ever knit stockings on a winter's 
night: only, when all the birds were going, he 
toddled out, and took off his cap to them, and 
wished them a merry journey and a safe return; 
and then gathered up all the feathers which they 6315 
had left, and cleaned them to sell down south, 
and make feather-beds for stuffy people to lie on. 

Then the petrels asked this bird and that 
whether they would take Tom to Shiny Wall: 
but one set was going to Sutherland, and one 6320 
to the Shetlands, and one to Norway, and one 
to Spitzbergen, and one to Iceland, and one to 
Greenland: but none would go to Shiny Wall. 
So the good-natured petrels said that they would 
show him part of the way themselves, but they 6325 
were only going as far as Jan Mayen's Land ; and 
after that he must shift for himself. 

And then all the birds rose up, and streamed 
away in long black lines, north, and north-east, 
and north-west, across the bright blue summer 6330 
sky; and their cry was like ten thousand packs 
of hounds, and ten thousand peals cf bells. Only 
the puffins stayed behind, and killed the young 
rabbits, and laid their eggs in the rabbit-burrows ; 
which was rough practice, certainly; but a man 6335 
must see to his own family. 

And, as Tom and the petrels went north- 
eastward, it began to blow right hard ; for the old 
gentleman in the gray great-coat, who looks after 



260 The Water-Babies 

6340 the big copper boiler, in the gulf of Mexico, had 
got behindhand with his work; so Mother Carey 
had sent an electric message to him for more 
steam; and now the steam was coming, as much 
in an hour as ought to have come in a week, 

6345 puffing and roaring and swishing and swirling, 
till you could not see where the sky ended and 
the sea began. But Tom and the petrels never 
cared, for the gale was right abaft, and away 
they went over the crests of the billows, as 

6350 merry as so many flying-fish. 

And at last they saw an ugly sight — the black 
side of a great ship, water-logged in the trough 
of the sea. Her funnel and her masts were over- 
board, and swayed and surged under her lee ; her 

6355 decks were swept as clean as a barn floor, and 
there was no living soul on board. 

The petrels flew up to her, and wailed round 
her; for they were very sorry indeed, and also 
they expected to find some salt pork; and Tom 

6360 scrambled on board of her and looked round, 
frightened and sad. 

And there, in a little cot, lashed tight under the 
bulwark, lay a baby fast asleep; the very same 
baby, Tom saw at once, which he had seen in the 

6365 singing lady's arms. 

He went up to it, and wanted to wake it; but 
behold, from under the cot out jumped a little 
black and tan terrier dog, and began barking and 



The Water-Babies 261 

snapping at Tom, and would not let him touch 
the cot. 6370 

Tom knew the dog's teeth could not hurt him: 
but at least it could shove him away, and did; 
and he and the dog fought and struggled, for he 
wanted to help the baby, and did not want to 
throw the poor dog overboard: but as they were 6375 
struggling, there came a tall green sea, and walked 
in over the weather side of the ship, and swept 
them all into the waves. 

"Oh, the baby, the baby!" screamed Tom: 
but the next moment he did not scream at alljesso 
for he saw the cot settling down through the green 
water, with the baby, smiling in it, fast asleep; 
and he saw the fairies come up from below, and . 
carry baby and cradle gently down in their soft 
arms; and then he knew it was all right, and 6385 
that there would be a new water-baby in St. . 
Brandan's Isle. 

And the poor little dog? 

Why, after he had kicked and coughed a little, 
he sneezed so hard that he sneezed himself 6390 
clean out of his skin, and turned into a water- 
dog, and jumped and danced round Tom, and 
ran over the crests of the waves, and snapped 
at the jelly-fish and the mackerel, and followed 
Tom the whole way to the Other-end-of -No where. 6395 

Then they went on again, till they began to 
see the peak of Jan Mayen's Land, standing up 



262 The Water -Babies 

like a white sugar-loaf, two miles above the 
clouds. 

6400 And there they fell in with a whole flock of 

molly-mocks, who were feeding on a dead whale. 

"These are the fellows to show you the way," 

said Mother Carey's chickens; "we cannot help 

you farther north. We don't like to get among 

6405 the ice pack, for fear it should nip our toes: 
but the molly s dare fly anywhere." 

So the petrels called to the mollys: but they 
were so busy and greedy, gobbling and pecking 
and spluttering and fighting over the blubber, 

6410 that they did not take the least notice. 

"Come, come," said the petrels, "you lazy 
greedy lubbers, this young gentleman is going 
to Mother Carey, and if you don't attend on him, 
you won't earn your discharge from her, you 

6415 know." 

"Greedy we are," says a great fat old molly, 
"but lazy we ain't; and, as for lubbers, we're no 
more lubbers than you. Let's have a look at 
the lad." 

6420 And he flapped right into Tom's face, and stared 
at him in the most impudent way (for the mol- 
lys are audacious fellows, as all whalers know), 
and then asked him where he hailed from, and 
what land he sighted last. 

6425 And, when Tom told him, he seemed pleased, and 
said he was a good plucked one to have got so far. 



The Water-Babies 263 

"Come along, lads," he said to the rest, "and 
give this little chap a cast over the pack, for Mother 
Carey's sake. We've eaten blubber enough for to- 
day, and we'll e'en work out a bit of our time by 6430 
helping the lad." 

So the mollys took Tom up on their backs, and 
flew off with him, laughing and joking — and oh, 
how they did smell of train oil ! 

"Who are you, you jolly birds?" asked Tom. 6« 5 

"We are the spirits of the old Greenland 
skippers (as every sailor knows), who hunted here, 
right whales and horse-whales, full hundreds of 
years agone. But, because we were saucy and 
greedy, we were all turned into mollys, to eate44o 
whale's blubber all our days. But lubbers we 
are none, and could sail a ship now against any 
man in the North seas, though we don't hold with 
this new-fangled steam. And it's a shame of 
those black imps of petrels to call us so; but 6445 
because they're her grace's pets, they think they 
may say anything they like." 

"And who are you?" asked Tom of him, for he 
saw that he was the king of all the birds. 

"My name is Hendrick Hudson, and a right 6450 
good skipper was I ; and my name will last to the 
world's end, in spite of all the wrong I did. For I 
discovered Hudson River, and I named Hudson's 
Bay ; and many have come in my wake that dared 
not have shown me the way. But I was a hard 6455 



264 The Water-Babies 

man in my time, that's truth, and stole the poor 
Indians off the coast of Maine^ and sold them 
for slaves down in Virginia ; and at last I was so 
cruel to my sailors, here in these very seas, "that 

6460 they set me adrift in an open boat, and I never 
was heard of more. So now I'm the king of all 
molly s, till I've worked out my time." 

And now they came to the edge of the pack, and 
beyond it they could see Shiny Wall looming, 

6465 through mist, and snow, and storm. But the 
pack rolled horribly upon the swell, and the ice 
giants fought and roared, and leapt upon each 
other's backs, and ground each other to powder^ 
so that Tom was afraid to venture among them, 

6470 lest he should be ground to powder too. And 
he was the more afraid, when he saw lying among 
the ice pack the wrecks of many a gallant ship; 
some with masts and yards all standing, some with 
the seamen frozen fast on board. Alas, alas, for 

6475 them! They were all true English hearts; and 
they came to their end like good knights-errant, 
in searching for the white gate that never was 
opened yet. 

But the good mollys took Tom and his dog up, 

6480 and flew with them safe over the pack and the 
roaring ice giants, and set them down at the foot 
of Shiny Wall. 

"And where is the gate?" asked Tom. 
"There is no gate," said the mollys. 




"The good molly s took Tom and his dog up, and flew with them safe 
over the pack and the roaring ice giants" 

[263] 



266 The Water -Babies 

e«5 "No gate?" cried Tom, aghast. 

"None; never a crack of one, and that's the 

whole of the secret, as better fellows, lad, than 

you have found to their cost; and if there had 

been, they'd have killed by now every right whale 

6490 that swims the sea." 

"What am I to do, then?" 
"Dive under the floe, to be sure, if you have 
pluck." 

"I've not come so far to turn now," said Tom; 
6595 "so here goes for a header." 

"A lucky voyage to you, lad," said the mollys; 
"we knew you were one of the right sort. So 
good-bye." 

"Why don't you come too?" asked Tom. 

65co But the mollys only wailed sadly, "We can't go 

yet, we can't go yet," and flew away over the pack. 

So Tom dived under the great white gate which 

never was opened yet, and went on in black 

darkness, at the bottom of the sea, for seven days 

6505 and seven nights. And yet he was not a bit 

frightened. Why should he be ? He was a brave 

English lad, whose business is to go out and see 

all the world. 

And at last he saw the light, and clear clear 

65io water overhead; and up he came a thousand 

fathoms, among clouds of sea-moths, which 

fluttered round his head. There were moths with 

pink heads and wings and opal bodies, that flapped 



The Water-Babies 267 

about slowly; moths with brown wings thai 
flapped about quickly ; yellow shrimps that hopped wis 
and skipped most quickly of all ; and jellies of all 
the colours in the world, that neither hopped nor 
skipped, but only dawdled and yawned, and would 
not get out of his way. The dog snapped at 
them till his jaws were tired; but Tom hardly 6520 
minded them at all, he was so eager to get to the 
top of the water, and see the pool where the good 
whales go. 

And a very large pool it was, miles and miles 
across, though the air was so clear that the ice 6525 
cliffs on the opposite side looked as if they were 
close at hand. All round it the ice cliffs rose, in 
walls and spires and battlements, and caves and 
bridges, and stories and galleries, in which the 
ice-fairies live, and drive away the storms andesao 
clouds, that Mother Carey's pool may lie calm 
from year's end to year's end. And the sun acted 
policeman, and walked round outside every day, 
peeping just over the top of the ice wall, to see 
that all went right; and now and then he played 0535 
conjuring tricks, or had an exhibition of fireworks, 
to amuse the ice-fairies. For he would make 
himself into four or five suns at once, or paint the 
sky with rings and crosses and crescents of white 
fire, and stick himself in the middle of them, and 0540 
wink at the fairies ; and I daresay they were very 
much amused ; for anything's fun in the country. 



268 The Water -Babies 

And there the good whales lay, the happy sleepy 
beasts, upon the still oily sea. They were all 

6545 right whales, you must know, and finners, and 
razor-backs, and bottle-noses, and spotted sea- 
unicorns with long ivory horns. But the sperm 
whales are such raging, ramping, roaring, rum- 
bustious fellows, that, if Mother Carey let them 

esse in, there would be no more peace in Peacepool. 
So she packs them away in a great pond by 
themselves at the South Pole, two hundred and 
sixty-three miles south-south-east of Mount Ere- 
bus, the great volcano in the ice ; and there they 

6555 butt each other with their ugly noses, day and 
night from year's end to year's end. 

But here there were only good quiet beasts, 
lying about like the black hulls of sloops, and 
blowing every now and then jets of white steam, 

6560 or sculling round with their huge mouths open, for 
the sea-moths to swim down their throats. There 
were no threshers there to thresh their poor 
old backs, or sword-fish to stab their stomachs, 
or saw-fish to rip them up, or ice-sharks to bite 

6565 lumps out of their sides, or whalers to harpoon 
and lance them. They were quite safe and happy 
there ; and all they had to do was to wait quietly 
in Peacepool, till Mother Carey sent for them to 
make them out of old beasts into new. 

6570 Tom swam up to the nearest whale, and asked 
the way to Mother Carey. 



The Water-Babies 26Q 

"There she sits in the middle," said the whale. 

Tom looked; but he could see nothing in the 
middle of the pool, but one peaked iceberg: and 
he said so. 6575 

"That's Mother Carey," said the whale, "as 
you will find when you get to her. There she sits 
making old beasts into new all the year round." 

"How does she do that?" 

"That's her concern, not mine," said the oldesso 
whale ; and yawned so wide (for he was very large) 
that there swam into his mouth 943 sea-moths, 
13,846 jelly-fish no bigger than pins' heads, a 
string of salpae nine yards long, and forty-three 
little ice-crabs, who gave each other a parting e&85 
pinch all round, tucked their legs under their 
stomachs, and determined to die decently, like 
Julius Caesar. 

"I suppose," said Tom, "she cuts up a great 
whale like you into a whole shoal of porpoises ?" 6590 

At which the old whale laughed so violently 
that he coughed up all the creatures; who swam 
away again very thankful at having escaped out 
of that terrible whalebone net of his, from which 
bourne no traveller returns ; and Tom went on to 6595 
the iceberg, wondering. 

And, when he came near it, it took the form 
of the grandest old lady he had ever seen — a 
white marble lady, sitting on a white marble 
throne. And from the foot of the throne there eeoo 




Mother Carey 

[270] 



The Water -Babies 271 

swam away, out and out into the sea, millions of 
new-born creatures, of more shapes and colours 
than man ever dreamed. And they were Mother 
Carey's children, whom she makes out of the 
sea-water all day long. eeos 

He expected, of course — like some grown peo- 
ple who ought to know better — to find her snip- 
ping, piecing, fitting, stitching, cobbling, basting, 
filing, planing, hammering, turning, polishing, 
moulding, measuring, chiselling, clipping, and soeeio 
forth, as men do when they go to work to make 
anything. 

But, instead of that, she sat quite still with her 
chin upon her hand, looking down into the sea 
with two great grand blue eyes, as blue as the seaeeis 
itself. Her hair was as white as the snow — for 
she was very very old — in fact, as old as anything 
which you are likely to come across, except the 
difference between right and wrong. 

And, when she saw Tom, she looked at him very 6620 
kindly. 

"What do you want, my little man? It is long 
since I have seen a water-baby here." 

Tom told her his errand, and asked the way to 
the Other-end-of -Nowhere. 6625 

"You ought to know yourself, for you have 
been there already." 

"Have I, ma'am? I'm sure I forget all about 
it." 



2J 2 The Water-Babies 

6630 "Then look at me." 

And, as Tom looked into her great blue eyes, 
he recollected the way perfectly. 
Now, was not that strange? 
"Thank you, ma'am," said Tom. "Then I 
6635 won't trouble your ladyship any more; I hear 
you are very busy." 

"I am never more busy than I am now," she 
said, without stirring a finger. 

"I heard, ma'am, that you were always making 
6640 new beasts out of old." 

"So people fancy. But I am not going to 
trouble myself to make things, my little dear. I 
sit here and make them make themselves." 
"You are a clever fairy, indeed," thought Tom. 
6645 And he was quite right. 

That is a grand trick of good old Mother Carey's, 
and a grand answer, which she has had occasion 
to make several times to impertinent people. 
There was once, for instance, a fairy who was so 
6650 clever that she found out how to make butterflies. 
I don't mean sham ones; no: but real live ones, 
which would fly, and eat, and lay eggs, and do 
everything that they ought; and she was so 
proud of her skill that she went flying straight 
6655 off to the North Pole, to boast to Mother Carey 
how she could make butterflies. 
But Mother Carey laughed. 
"Know, silly child," she said, "that any one 



The Water -Babies 2J3 

can make things, if they will take time and trouble 
enough: but it is not every one who, like me, eeeo 
can make things make themselves." 

But people do not yet believe that Mother Carey 
is as clever as all that comes to ; and they will not 
till they, too, go the journey to the Other-end- 
of -No where. 6665 

"And now, my pretty little man," said Mother 
Carey, "you are sure you know the way to the 
Other-end-of -No where ?" 

Tom thought ; and behold, he had forgotten it 
utterly. 6670 

"That is because you took your eyes off me." 

Tom looked at her again, and recollected; and 
then looked away, and forgot in an instant. 

"But what am I to do, ma'am? For I can't 
keep looking at you when I am somewhere 6675 
else." 

"You must do without me, as most people have 
to do, for nine hundred and ninety-nine thou- 
sandths of their lives ; and look at the dog instead ; 
for he knows the way well enough, and will noteeso 
forget it. Besides, you may meet some very 
queer-tempered people there, who will not let 
you pass without this passport of mine, which 
you must hang round your neck and take care 
of; and, of course, as the dog will always goesss 
behind you, you must go the whole way back- 
ward." 



2J4 The Water-Babies 

"Backward!" cried Tom. "Then I shall not 
be able to see my way." 

6690 "On the contrary, if you look forward, you 
will not see a step before you, and be certain 
to go wrong; but, if you look behind you, and 
watch carefully whatever you have passed, 
and especially keep your eye on the dog, who 

6695 goes by instinct, and therefore can't go wrong, 
then you will know what is coming next, as 
plainly as if you saw it in a looking-glass." 

Tom was very much astonished: but he 
obeyed her, for he had learnt always to believe 

6700 what the fairies told him. 

"So it is, my dear child," said Mother Carey; 
"and I will tell you a story, which will show 
you that I am perfectly right, as it is my custom 
to be. 

6705 "Once on a time, there were two brothers. 
One was called Prometheus, because he always 
looked before him, and boasted that he was 
wise beforehand. The other was called Epime- 
theus, because he always looked behind him, 

67io and did not boast at all; but said humbly, like 
the Irishman, that he had sooner prophesy after 
the event. 

"Well, Prometheus was a very clever fellow, 
of course, and invented all sorts of wonderful 

67i5 things. But, unfortunately, when they were set 
to work, to work was just what they would not 



The Water -Babies 27 § 

do: wherefore very little has come of them, 
and very little is left of them; and now nobody 
knows what they were, save a few archaeological 
old gentlemen who scratch in queer corners, and 6720 
find little there save Ptinum Furem, Blaptem 
Mortisagam, Acarum Horridum, and Tineam 
Laciniarum. 

"But Epimetheus was a very slow fellow, 
certainly, and went among men for a clod, and 6725 
a muff, and a milksop, and a slowcoach, and a 
bloke, and a boodle, and so forth. And very 
little he did, for many years: but what he did, 
he never had to do over again. 

"And what happened at last? There came to 6730 
the two brothers the most beautiful creature 
that ever was seen, Pandora by name; which 
means, All the gifts of the Gods. But because 
she had a strange box in her hand, this fanciful, 
forecasting, suspicious, prudential, theoretical, de-6735 
ductive, prophesying Prometheus, who was always 
settling what was going to happen, would have 
nothing to do with pretty Pandora and her box. 

"But Epimetheus took her and it, as he took 
everything that came; and married her for better mo 
for worse, as every man ought, whenever he has 
even the chance of a good wife. And they 
opened the box between them, of course, to 
see what was inside: for, else, of what possible 
use could it have been to them? 6745 



2 7 '6 The Water-Babies 

''And out new all the ills which flesh is heir 
' to ; all the children of the four great bogies, Self- 
will, Ignorance, Fear, and Dirt — for instance: — 

Measles, Famines, 

S750 Monks, Quacks, 

Scarlatina, Unpaid bills, 

Idols, Tight stays, 

Hooping-coughs, Potatoes, 

Popes, Bad Wine, 

6755 Wars, Despots, 

Peacemongers, Demagogues, 

And, worst of all, Naughty Boys and Girls. 

But one thing remained . at the bottom of the 
box, and that was, Hope. 

6760 "So Epimetheus got a great deal of trouble, 
as most men do in this world: but he got the 
three best things in the world into the bargain — 
a good wife, and experience, and hope: while 
Prometheus had just as much trouble, and a 

6765 great deal more (as you will hear), of his own 
making; with nothing beside, save fancies spun 
out of his own brain, as a spider spins her web 
out of her stomach. 

"And Prometheus kept on looking before 

6770 him so far ahead, that as he was running about 
with a box of lucifers (which were the only 
useful things he ever invented, and do as much 
harm as good), he trod on his own nose, and 




n.k «caro usvii^jt 



'They opened the box between them*' 



\»77\ 



2j8 The Water -Babies 

tumbled down (as most deductive philosophers 

6775 do), whereby he set the Thames on fire; and 
they have hardly put it out again yet. So he 
had to be chained to the top of a mountain, 
with a vulture by him to give him a peck when- 
ever he stirred, lest he should turn the whole 

6780 world upside down with his prophecies and his 
theories. 

"But stupid old Epimetheus went working 
and grubbing on, with the help of his wife Pan- 
dora, always looking behind him to see what had 

6785 happened, till he really learnt to know now and 
then what would happen next; and understood 
so well which side his bread was buttered, and 
which way the cat jumped, that he began to 
make things which would work, and go on 

6780 working, too; to till and drain the ground, and 
to make looms, and ships, and railroads, and 
steam ploughs, and electric telegraphs, and all 
the things which you see in the Great Exhibition ; 
and to foretell famine, and bad weather, and the 

6795 price of stocks and (what is hardest of all) the 
next vagary of the great idol Whirligig, which 
some call Public Opinion; till at last he grew as 
rich as a Jew, and as fat as a farmer, and people 
thought twice before they meddled with him, 

esoobut only once before they asked him to help 
them ; for, because he earned his money well, he 
could afford to spend it well likewise. 



The Water -Babies 2 J g 

"And his children are the men of science, who 
get good lasting work done in the world; but 
the,, children of Prometheus are the fanatics, andesos 
the theorists, and the bigots, and the bores, and the 
noisy windy people, who go telling silly folk what 
will happen, instead of looking to see what has 
happened already." 

Now, was not Mother Carey's a wonderful esio 
story? And, I am happy to say, Tom believed 
it every word. 

For so it happened to Tom likewise. He was 
very sorely tried; for though, by keeping the 
dog to heels (or rather to toes, for he had toesis 
walk backward), he could see pretty well which 
way the dog was hunting, yet it was much 
slower work to go backwards than to go forwards. 
But, what was more trying still, no sooner had 
he got out of Peacepool, than there came running 6820 
to him all the conjurors, fortune-tellers, astrol- 
ogers, prophesiers, projectors, prestigitators, as 
many as were in those parts (and there are too 
many of them everywhere), Old Mother Shipton 
on her broomstick, with Merlin, Thomas thees25 
Rhymer, Gerbertus, Rabanus Maurus, Nostrada- 
mus, Zadkiel, Raphael, Moore, Old Nixon, and a 
good many in black coats and white ties who 
might have known better, considering in what 
century they were born, all bawling and screaming esso 
at him, "Look a-head, only look a-head; and we 



280 The Water-Babies 

will show you what man never saw before, and 
right away to the end of the world!" 

But I am proud to say that, though Tom had 

6835 not been to Cambridge — for, if he had, he would 
have certainly been senior wrangler — he was 
such a little dogged, hard, gnarly, foursquare 
brick of an English boy, that he never turned 
his head round once all the way from Peacepool 

6840 to the Other-end-of -Nowhere : but kept his eye 
on the dog, and let him pick out the scent, 
hot or cold, straight or crooked, wet or dry, up 
hill or down dale ; by which means he never made 
a single mistake, and saw all the wonderful 

6845 and hitherto by-no-mortal-man-imagined things, 
which it is my duty to relate to you in the next 
chapter. 



Come to me, O ye children! 

For I hear you at your play; 
A nd the questions that perplexed me 

Have vanished quite away. 

Ye open the Eastern windows, 
That look towards the sun, 

Where thoughts are singing swallows, 
And the brooks of morning run. 



For what are all our contrivings 
And the wisdom of our books, 

When compared with your caresses, 
And the gladness of your looks? 

Ye are better than all the ballads 
That ever were sung or said; 

For ye are living poems, 
And all the rest are dead. 

Longfellow. 



CHAPTER VIII and LAST 

HERE begins the never-to-be-too-much- 
studied account of the nine-hundred-and- 
ninety-ninth part of the wonderful things esso 
which Tom saw on his journey to the Other-end- 
of -Nowhere; which all good little children are 
requested to read; that, if ever they get to the 
Other-end-of -Nowhere, as they may very probably 
do, they may not burst out laughing, or try to runesss 
away, or do any other silly vulgar thing which 
may offend Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid. 

Now, as soon as Tom had left Peacepool, he 
came to the white lap of the great sea-mother, 
ten thousand fathoms deep; where she makes eseo 
world-pap all day long, for the steam-giants 
to knead, and the fire-giants to bake, till it has 
risen and hardened into mountain-loaves and 
island-cakes. 

And there Tom was very near being kneaded eses 
up in the world-pap, and turned into a fossil 
water-baby; which would have astonished the 
Geological Society of New Zealand some hundreds 
of thousands of years hence. 

For, as he walked along in the silence of thees7o 
sea-twilight, on the soft white ocean floor, he 
was aware of a hissing, and a roaring, and a 
thumping, and a pumping, as of all the steam- 
engines in the world at once. And, when he 

[283) 



284 The Water-Babies 

6875 came near, the water grew boiling-hot; not that 
that hurt him in the least: but it also grew 
as foul as gruel ; and every moment he stumbled 
over dead shells, and fish, and sharks, and seals, 
and whales, which had been killed by the hot 

6880 water. 

And at last he came to the great sea-serpent 
himself, lying dead at the bottom; and as he 
was too thick to scramble over, Tom had to 
walk round him three-quarters of a mile and 

6885 more, which put him out of his path sadly; and, 
when he had got round, he came to the place 
called Stop. And there he stopped, and just 
in time. 

For he was on the edge of a vast hole in the 

6890 bottom of the sea, up which was rushing and 
roaring clear steam enough to work all the 
engines in the world at once; so clear, indeed, 
that it was quite light at moments; and Tom 
could see almost up to the top of the water 

6895 above, and down below into the pit for nobody 
knows how far. 

But, as soon as he bent his head over the edge, 
he got such a rap on the nose from pebbles, 
that he jumped back again; for the steam, as it 

69oo rushed up, rasped away the sides of the hole, and 
hurled it up into the sea in a shower of mud and 
gravel and ashes; and then it spread all around, 
and sank again, and covered in the dead fish 




•«Vi. • ««R(,U> 



4 " 



'At last he came to the great sea-serpent himself' 

1 285} 



286 The Water-Babies 

so fast, that before Tom had stood there five 

6905 minutes he was buried in silt up to his ankles, 
and began to be afraid that he should have 
been buried alive. 

And perhaps he would have been, but that 
while he was thinking, the whole piece of ground 

6910 on which he stood was torn off and blown up- 
wards, and away flew Tom a mile up through 
the sea, wondering what was coming next. 

At last he stopped — thump! and found him- 
self tight in the legs of the most wonderful 

69i5 bogy which he had ever seen. 

It had I don't know how many wings, as big 
as the sails of a windmill, and spread out in a 
ring like them; and with them it hovered over 
the steam which rushed up, as a ball hovers 

6920 over the top of a fountain. And for every wing 
above it had a leg below, with a claw like a 
comb at the tip, and a nostril at the root; and 
in the middle it had no stomach and one eye; 
and as for its mouth, that was all on one side, 

6925 as the madreporiform tubercle in a star-fish 
is. Well, it was a very strange beast; but no 
stranger than some dozens which you may see. 

"What do you want here," it cried quite 
peevishly, "getting in my way?" and it tried to 

6930 drop Tom: but he held on tight to its claws, 
thinking himself safer where he was. 

So Tom told him who he was, and what his 



The Water-Babies 287 

errand was. And the thing winked its one eye, 
and sneered: 

"I am too old to be taken in in that way. 6935 
You are come after gold — I know you are." 

"Gold! What is gold?" And really Tom did 
not know ; but the suspicious old bogy would not 
believe him. 

But after a while Tom began to understand a 6940 
little. For, as the vapours came up out of the 
hole, the bogy smelt them with his nostrils, and 
combed them and sorted them with his combs; 
and then, when they steamed up through them 
against his wings, they were changed into showers 6945 
and streams of metal. From one wing fell gold- 
dust, and from another silver, and from another 
copper, and from another tin, and from another 
lead, and so on, and sank into the soft mud, into 
veins and cracks, and hardened there. Whereby 0950 
it comes to pass that the rocks are full of metal. 

But, all of a sudden, somebody shut off the 
steam below, and the hole was left empty in an 
instant: and then down rushed the water into 
the hole, in such a whirlpool that the bogy spun 6955 
round and round as fast as a teetotum. But 
that was all in his day's work, like a fair fall with 
the hounds ; so all he did was to say to Tom — 

"Now is your time, youngster, to get down, 
if you are in earnest, which I don't believe." egeo 

"You'll soon see," said Tom; and away he 




"The most wonderful bogy which he had ever seen" 
[288] 



The Water-Babies 289 

went, as bold as Baron Munchausen, and shot 
down the rushing cataract like a salmon at 
Ballisodare. 

And, when he got to the bottom, he swam till ^^ 
he was washed on shore safe upon the Other- 
end-of -Nowhere ; and he found it, to his sur- 
prise, as most other people do, much more like 
This-End-of -Somewhere than he had been in the 
habit of expecting. 0970 

And first he went through Waste-paper-land, 
where all the stupid books lie in heaps, up hill 
and down dale, like leaves in a winter wood ; and 
there he saw people digging and grubbing among 
them, to make worse books out of bad ones, and ms 
thrashing chaff to save the dust of it ; and a very 
good trade they drove thereby, especially among 
children. 

Then he went by the sea of slops, to the 
mountain of messes, and the territory of tuck, eoso 
where the ground was very sticky, for it was all 
made of bad toffee (not Everton toffee, of course), 
and full of deep cracks and holes choked with 
wind-fallen fruit, and green gooseberries, and 
sloes, and crabs, and whinberries, and hips and eass 
haws, and all the nasty things which little 
children will eat, if they can get them. But the 
fairies hide them out of the way in that country 
as fast as they can, and very hard work they 
have, and of very little use it is. For as fast aseeao 



2 go The Water -Babies 

they hide away the old trash, foolish and wicked 
people make fresh trash full of lime and poisonous 
paints, and actually go and steal receipts out of 
old Madame Science's big book to invent poisons 

6995 for little children, and sell them at wakes and 
fairs and tuck-shops. Very well. Let them 
go on. Dr. Letheby and Dr. Hassall cannot 
catch them, though they are setting traps for 
them all day long. But the fairy with the 

7000 birch-rod will catch them all in time, and make 
them begin at one corner of their shops, and eat 
their way out at the other: by which time they 
will have got such stomach-aches as will cure 
them of poisoning little children. 

7005 Next he saw all the little people in the world, 
writing all the little books in the world, about 
all the other little people in the world; probably 
because they had no great people to write about : 
and if the names of the books were not Squeeky, 

7010 nor the Pump-lighter, nor the Narrow Narrow 
World, nor the Hills of the Chattermuch, nor the 
Children's Twaddeday, why then they were 
something else. And all the rest of the little 
people in the world read the books, and thought 

7015 themselves each as good as the President; and 
perhaps they were right, for every one knows 
his own business best. But Tom thought he 
would sooner have a jolly good fairy tale, about 
Jack the Giant-killer or Beauty and the Beast, 



The Water-Babies 2Qi 

which taught him something that he didn't know 7020 
already. 

And next he came to the centre of Creation 
(the hub, they call it there), which lies in latitude 
42.2 1° south, and longitude 108. 56 east. 

And there he found all the wise people instruct- 7025 
ing mankind in the science of spirit-rapping, while 
their house was burning over their heads: and 
when Tom told them of the fire, they held an 
indignation meeting forthwith, and unanimously 
determined to hang Tom's dog for coming into 7030 
their country with gunpowder in his mouth. 
Tom couldn't help saying that though they 
did fancy they had carried all the wit away with 
them out of Lincolnshire two hundred years 
ago, yet if they had had one such Lincoln- 7035 
shire nobleman among them as good old Lord 
Yarborough, he would have called for the 
fire-engines before he hanged other people's dogs. 
But it was of no use, and the dog was hanged: 
and Tom couldn't even have his carcase; for 7040 
they had abolished the have-his-carcase act in that 
country, for fear lest when rogues fell out, honest 
men should come by their own. And so they 
would have succeeded perfectly, as they always 
do, only that (as they also always do) they7o« 
failed in one little particular, viz. that the dog 
would not die, being a water-dog, but bit their 
fingers so abominably that they were forced to 



2Q2 The Water-Babies 

let him go, and Tom likewise, as British subjects. 

7050 Whereon they recommenced rapping for the 
spirits of their fathers ; and very much astonished 
the poor old spirits were when they came, and 
saw how, according to the laws of Mrs. Bedoneby- 
asyoudid, their descendants had weakened their 

7055 constitution by hard living. 

Then came Tom to the Island of Poluprag- 
mosyne (which some call Rogues* Harbour ; but 
they are wrong; for that is in the middle of 
Bramshill Bushes, and the county police have 

7060 cleared it out long ago). There every one 
knows his neighbour's business better than his 
own; and a very noisy place it is, as might be 
expected, considering that all the inhabitants 
are ex officio on the wrong side of the house in 

7065 the "Parliament of Man, and the Federation of the 
World" ; and are always making wry mouths, 
and crying that the fairies' grapes were . sour. 

There Tom saw ploughs drawing horses, nails 
driving hammers, birds' nests taking boys, books 

7070 making authors, bulls keeping china-shops, 
monkeys shaving cats, dead dogs drilling live 
lions, blind brigadiers shelfed as principals of 
colleges, play-actors not in the least shelfed as 
popular preachers; and, in short, every one set 

7075 to do something which he had not learnt, because 
in what he had learnt, or pretended to learn, he 
had failed. 



The Water-Babies 2Q3 

There stands the Pantheon of the Great 
Unsuccessful, from the builders of the Tower of 
Babel to those of the Trafalgar Fountains; in7oso 
which politicians lecture on the constitutions 
which ought to have marched, conspirators on 
the revolutions which ought to have succeeded, 
economists on the schemes which ought to 
have made every one's fortune, and projectors toss 
on the discoveries which ought to have set the 
Thames on fire. There cobblers lecture on 
orthopedy (whatsoever that may be) because 
they cannot sell their shoes; and poets on 
Esthetics (whatsoever that may be) because 7090 
they cannot sell their poetry. There philosophers 
demonstrate that England would be the freest 
and richest country in the world, if she would 
only turn Papist again; penny-a-liners abuse 
the Times, because they have not wit enough 7095 
to get on its staff; and young ladies walk about 
with lockets of Charles the First's hair (or of 
somebody else's, when the Jews' genuine stock 
is used up) , inscribed with the neat and appro- 
priate legend — which indeed is popular through 7100 
all that land, and which, I hope, you will learn to 
translate in due time and to perpend likewise : — 

Victrix causa diis placuit, sed victa puellis. 

When he got into the middle of the town, they 
all set on him at once, to show him his way; or 7105 



2Q4 The Water-Babies* 

rather, to show him that he did not know his 
way; for as for asking him what way he wanted 
to go, no one ever thought of that. 

But one pulled him hither, and another poked 
7110 him thither, and a third cried — 

"You mustn't go west, I tell you; it is destruc- 
tion to go west." 

"But I am not going west, as you may see," 
said Tom. 
7115 And another, "The east lies here, my dear; I 
assure you this is the east." 

"But I don't want to go east," said Tom. 

"Well, then, at all events, whichever way you 

are going, you are going wrong," cried they all 

7120 with one voice — which was the only thing which 

they ever agreed about; and all pointed at once 

to all the thirty-and-two points of the compass, 

till Tom thought all the sign-posts in England 

had got together, and fallen fighting. 

7i25 And whether he would have ever escaped out 

of the town, it is hard to say, if the dog had 

not taken it into his head that they were going 

to pull his master in pieces, and tackled them so 

sharply about the gastrocnemius muscle, that he 

7130 gave them some business of their own to think 

of at last; and while they were rubbing their 

bitten calves, Tom and the dog got safe away. 

On the borders of that island he found Gotham, 
where the wise men live; the same who dragged 



The Water-Babies 295 

the pond because the moon had fallen into it, 7135 
and planted a hedge round the cuckoo, to keep 
spring all the year. And he found them bricking 
up the town gate, because it was so wide that 
little folks could not get through. And, when he 
asked why, they told him they were expanding 7140 
their liturgy. So he went on ; for it was no busi- 
ness of his: only he could not help saying that 
in his country, if the kitten could not get in at 
the same hole as the cat, she might stay outside 
and mew. 7145 

But he saw the end of such fellows, when he 
came to the island of the Golden Asses, where 
nothing but thistles grow. For there they were 
all turned into mokes with ears a yard long, for 
meddling with matters which they do not under- 7150 
stand, as Lucius did in the story. And like him, 
mokes they must remain, till, by the laws of 
development, the thistles develop into roses. 
Till then, they must comfort themselves with 
the thought, that the longer their ears are, the 7155 
thicker their hides; and so a good beating don't 
hurt them. 

Then came Tom to the great land of Hearsay, 
in which are no less than thirty and odd kings, 
beside half a dozen Republics, and perhaps 7ieo 
more by next mail. 

And there he fell in with a deep, dark, deadly, 
and destructive war, waged by the princes and 



2q6 The Water-Babies 

potentates of those parts, both spiritual and 

7i65 temporal, against what do you think? One 
thing I am sure of. That unless I told you, you 
would never know; nor how they waged that 
war either ; for all their strategy and art military 
consisted in the safe and easy process of stopping 

7170 their ears and screaming, "Oh, don't tell us!" 
and then running away. 

So when Tom came into that land, he found 
them all, high and low, man, woman, and child, 
running for their lives day and night continually, 

7175 and entreating not to be told they didn't know 
what: only the land being an island, and they 
having a dislike to the water (being a musty 
lot for the most part), they ran round and round 
the shore for ever, which (as the island was 

7180 exactly of the same circumference as the planet 
on which we have the honour of living) was 
hard work, especially to those who had business 
to look after. But before them, as bandmaster 
and fugleman, ran a gentleman shearing a pig; 

7i85 the melodious strains of which animal led them 
for ever, if not to conquest, still to flight; and 
kept up their spirits mightily with the thought 
that they would at least have the pig's wool for 
their pains. 

7190 And running after them, day and night, came 
such a poor, lean, seedy, hard-worked old giant, 
as ought to have been cockered up, and had a 



The Water-Babies 2QJ 

good dinner given him, and a good wife found 
him, and been set to play with little children; 
and then he would have been a very presentable 7195 
old fellow after all ; for he had a heart, though it 
was considerably overgrown with brains. 

He was made up principally of fish bones and 
parchment, put together with wire and Canada 
balsam; and smelt strongly of spirits, though 7200 
he never drank anything but water: but spirits 
he used somehow, there was no denying. He 
had a great pair of spectacles on his nose, and 
a butterfly-net in one hand, and a geological 
hammer in the other; and was hung all over 7205 
with pockets, full of collecting boxes, bottles, mi- 
croscopes, telescopes, barometers, ordnance maps, 
scalpels, forceps, photographic apparatus, and all 
other tackle for finding out everything about 
everything, and a little more too. And, most 7210 
strange of all, he was running not forwards but 
backwards, as fast as he could. 

Away all the good folks ran from him, except 
Tom, who stood his ground and dodged between 
his legs; and the giant, when he had passed 7215 
him, looked down, and cried, as if he was quite 
pleased and comforted,— 

"What? who are you? And you actually 
don't run away, like all the rest?" But he had 
to take his spectacles off, Tom remarked, in 7220 
order to see him plainly. 



2Q8 The Water-Babies 

Tom told him who he was; and the giant 
pulled out a bottle and a cork instantly, to 
collect him with. 

7225 But Tom was too sharp for that, and dodged 
between his legs and in front of him; and then 
the giant could not see him at all. 

"No, no, no!" said Tom, "I've not been round 
the world, and through the world, and up to 

7230 Mother Carey's Haven, beside being caught in a 
net and called a Holothurian and a Cephalopod, 
to be bottled up by any old giant like you." 

And when the giant understood what a great 
traveller Tom had been, he made a truce with 

7235 him at once, and would have kept him there to 
this day to pick his brains, so delighted was he 
at finding any one to tell him what he did not 
know before. 

"Ah, you lucky little dog!" said he at last, 

7240 quite simply — for he was the simplest, pleasant- 
est, honestest, kindliest old Dominie Sampson 
of a giant that ever turned the world upside 
down without intending it — "ah, you lucky lit- 
tle dog! If I had only been where you have been, 

7245 to see what you have seen!" 

"Well," said Tom, "if you want to do that, 
you had best put your head under water for a 
few hours, as I did, and turn into a water-baby, 
or some other baby, and then you might have 

7250 a chance." 



The Water-Babies 2qq 

"Turn into a baby, eh? If I could do that, 
and know what was happening to me for but 
one hour, I should know everything then, and 
be at rest. But I can't; I can't be a little child 
again; and I suppose if I could, it would be no 7255 
use, because then I should then know nothing 
about what was happening to me. Ah, you lucky 
little dog!" said the poor old giant. 

"But why do you run after all these poor 
people?" said Tom, who liked the giant very?26o 
much. 

"My dear, it's they that have been running 
after me, father and son, for hundreds and 
hundreds of years, throwing stones at me till 
they have knocked off my spectacles fifty times, 7265 
and calling me a malignant and a turbaned 
Turk, who beat a Venetian and traduced the 
State — goodness only knows what they mean, 
for I never read poetry — and hunting me round 
and round — though catch me they can't, for 7270 
every time I go over the same ground, I go 
the faster, and grow the bigger. While all I 
want is to be friends with them, and to tell them 
something to their advantage, like Mr. Joseph 
Ady : only somehow they are so strangely afraid 7273 
of hearing it. But, I suppose I am not a man 
of the world, and have no tact." 

"But why don't you turn round and tell them 
so?" 



joo The Water-Babies 

72so ''Because I can't. You see, I am one of the 
sons of Epimetheus, and must go backwards, if 
I am to go at all." 

"But why don't you stop, and let them come 
up to you?" 

7285 "Why, my dear, only think. If I did, all 
the butterflies and cockyolybirds would fly past 
me, and then I should catch no more new species, 
and should grow rusty and mouldy, and die. And 
I don't intend to do that, my dear; for I have a 

7290 destiny before me, they say: though what it is 
I don't know, and don't care." 
"Don't care?" said Tom. 
"No. Do the duty which lies nearest you, and 
catch the first beetle you come across, is my 

7295 motto; and I have thriven by it for some 
hundred years. Now I must go on. Dear me, 
while I have been talking to you, at least nine 
new species have escaped me." 

And on went the giant, behind before, like a 

7300 bull in a china-shop, till he ran into the steeple 
of the great idol temple (for they are all idolaters 
in those parts, of course, else they would never 
be afraid .of giants), and knocked the upper half 
clean off, hurting himself horribly about the small 

7305 of the back. 

But little he cared; for as soon as the ruins 
of the steeple were well between his legs, he poked 
and peered among the falling stones, and shifted 



The Water-Babies joi 

his spectacles, and pulled out his pocket-magni- 
ner 5 and cried — 7310 

"An entirely new Oniscus, and three obscure 
Podurellae! Besides a moth which M. le Roi 
des Papillons (though he, like all Frenchmen, 
is given to hasty inductions) says is confined to 
the limits of the Glacial Drift. This is most 7315 
important!" 

And down he sat on the nave of the temple 
(not being a man of the world) to examine his 
Podurellae. Whereon (as was to be expected) 
the roof caved in bodily, smashing the idols, and 7320 
sending the priests flying out of doors and win- 
dows, like rabbits out of a burrow when a ferret 
goes in. 

But he never heeded; for out of the dust flew 
a bat, and the giant had him in a moment. 7325 

"Dear me! This is even more important! 
Here is a cognate species to that which Macgilli- 
waukie Brown insists is confined to the Buddhist 
temples of Little Thibet; and now when I look 
at it, it may be only a variety produced by 7330 
difference of climate ! ' ' 

And having bagged his bat, up he got, and on 
he went; while all the people ran, being in none 
the better humour for having their temple 
smashed for the sake of three obscure species 7335 
of Podurella, and a Buddhist bat. 

"Well," thought Tom, "this is a veiy pretty 



$02 The Water-Babies 

quarrel, with a good deal to be said on both 
sides. But it is no business of mine." 

7340 And no more it was, because he was a water- 
baby, and had the original sow by the right 
ear ; which you will never have, unless you be a 
baby, whether of the water, the land, or the air, 
matters not, provided you can only keep on con- 

7345 tinually being a baby. 

So the giant ran round after the people, and 
the people ran round after the giant, and they are 
running unto this day for aught I know, or do not 
know ; and will run till either he, or they, or both, 

7350 turn into little children. And then, as Shake- 
speare says (and therefore it must be true) — 

Jack shall have Gill, 
Nought shall go ill, 
The man shall have his mare again, and all go well. 

7355 Then Tom came to a very famous island, 
which was called, in the days of the great travel- 
ler Captain Gulliver, the Isle of Laputa. But 
Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid has named it over again, 
the Isle of Tomtoddies, all heads and no bodies. 

7360 And when Tom came near it, he heard such 
a grumbling and grunting and growling and 
wailing and weeping and whining that he thought 
people must be ringing little pigs, or cropping 
puppies' ears, or drowning kittens: but when 

7365 he came nearer still, he began to hear words 
among the noise; which vvas the Tomtoddies' 



The Water-Babies 3°3 

song which they sing morning and evening, and 
all night too, to their great idol Examination— 

I can't learn my lesson: the examiner's coming! 

And that was the only song which they knew. 7370 

And when Tom got on shore the first thing he 
saw was a great pillar, on one side of which was 
inscribed, "Playthings not allowed here"; at 
which he was so shocked that he would not stay 
to see what was written on the other side. Then 7375 
he looked round for the people of the island : but 
instead of men, women, and children, he found 
nothing but turnips and radishes, beet and 
mangold wurzel, without a single green leaf 
among them, and half of them burst and decayed, 7380 
with toad-stools growing out of them. Those 
which were left began crying to Tom, in half a 
dozen different languages at once, and all of 
them badly spoken, "I can't learn my lesson; do 
come and help me!" And one cried, "Can you73 85 
show me how to extract this square root?" 

And another, "Can you tell me the distance 
between a Lyrae and fi Camelopardis?" 

And another, "What is the latitude and 
longitude of Snooksville, in Noman's County, 7390 

Oregon, U.S.?" 

And another, "What was the name of Mutius 
Sc£evola's thirteenth cousin's grandmother's 
maid's cat?" 



J04 The Water-Babies 

7395 And another, ''How long would it take a 
school-inspector of average activity to tumble 
head over heels from London to York?" 

And another, "Can you tell me the name of 
a place that nobody ever heard of, where nothing 
7iooever happened, in a country which has not been 
discovered yet?" 

And another, "Can you show me how to 
correct this hopelessly corrupt passage of Grai- 
diocolosyrtus Tabenniticus, on the cause why 
7405 crocodiles have no tongues?" 

And so on, and so on, and so on, till one would 
have thought they were all trying for tide-waiters' 
places, or cornetcies in the heavy dragoons. 
"And what good on earth will it do you if I did 
7410 tell you?" quoth Tom. 

Well, they didn't know that: all they knew 
was the examiner was coming. 

Then Tom stumbled on the hugest and softest 

nimblecomequick turnip you ever saw filling a 

7415 hole in a crop of swedes, and it cried to him, 

"Can you tell me anything at all about anything 

you like?" 

"About what?" says Tom. 

"About anything you like; for as fast as I 

7420 learn things I forget them again. So my mamma 

says that my intellect is not adapted for methodic 

science, and says that I must go in for general 

information." 



The Water-Babies joj 

Tom told him that he did not know General 
Information, nor any officers in the army; only 7425 
he had a friend once that went for a drummer: 
but he could tell him a great many strange 
things which he had seen in his travels. 

So he told him prettily enough, while the poor 
turnip listened very carefully ; and the more he 7430 
listened, the more he forgot, and the more water 
ran out of him. 

Tom thought he was crying: but it was only 
his poor brains running away, from being worked 
so hard; and as Tom talked, the unhappy turnip 7435 
streamed down all over with juice, and split and 
shrank till nothing was left of him but rind and 
water ; whereat Tom ran away in a fright, for he 
thought he might be taken up for killing the 
turnip. 7440 

But, on the contrary, the turnip's parents 
were highly delighted, and considered him a 
saint and a martyr, and put up a long inscription 
over his tomb about his wonderful talents, early 
development, and unparalleled precocity. Were 7445 
they not a foolish couple? But there was a still 
more foolish couple next to them, who were 
beating a wretched little radish, no bigger than 
my thumb, for sullenness and obstinacy and 
wilful stupidity, and never knew that the reason 7450 
why it couldn't learn or hardly even speak was, 
that there was a great worm inside it eating out 



jo6 The Water-Babies 

all its bJains. But even they are no foolisher 
than some hundred score of papas and mammas, 

7453 who fetch the rod when they ought to fetch a 
new toy, and send to the dark cupboard instead 
of to the doctor. 

Tom was so puzzled and frightened with all he 
saw, that he was longing to ask the meaning of it ; 

746o and at last he stumbled over a respectable old 
stick lying half covered with earth. But a very 
stout and worthy stick it was, for it belonged 
to good Roger Ascham in old time, and had 
carved on its head King Edward the Sixth, 

7465 with the Bible in his hand. 

"You see," said the stick, "there were as pretty 
little children once as you could wish to see, and 
might have been so still if they had been only 
left to grow up like human beings, and then 

7470 handed over to me ; but their foolish fathers and 
mothers, instead of letting them pick flowers, 
and make dirt-pies, and get birds' nests, and 
dance round the gooseberry bush, as little 
children should, kept them always at lessons, 

7475 working, working, working, learning week-day 
lessons all week-days, and Sunday lessons all 
Sunday, and weekly examinations every Satur- 
day, and monthly examinations every month, 
and yearly examinations every year, everything 

7480 seven times over, as if once was not enough, and 
enough as good as a feast — till their brains grew 



The Water -Babies 307 

big, and their bodies grew small, and they were 
all changed into turnips, with little but water 
inside; and still their foolish parents actually 
pick the leaves off them as fast as they grow, lest 7435 
they should have anything green about them." 

"Ah!" said Tom, "if dear Mrs. Doasyouwould- 
bedoneby knew of it she would send them a lot 
of tops, and balls, and marbles, and ninepins, 
and make them all as jolly as sand-boys." 7490 

"It would be no use," said the stick. "They 
can't play now, if they tried. Don't you see 
how their legs have turned to roots and grown 
into the ground, by never taking any exercise, 
but sapping and moping always in the same 7495 
place? But here comes the Examiner-of -all- 
Examiners. So you had better get away, I warn 
you, or he will examine you and your dog into the 
bargain, and set him to examine all the other 
dogs, and you to examine all the ""other water- 7500 
babies. There is no escaping out of his hands, 
for his nose is nine thousand miles long, and 
can go down chimneys, and through keyholes, 
upstairs, downstairs, in my lady's chamber, 
examining all little boys, and the little boys' 7505 
tutors likewise. But when he is thrashed — so 
Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid has promised me— I shall 
have the thrashing of him: and if I don't lay it 
on with a will it's a pity." 

Tom went off: but rather slowly and surlily; 7510 



jo8 The Water-Babies 

for he was somewhat minded to face this same 
Examiner-of-all-Examiners, who came striding 
among the poor turnips, binding heavy burdens 
and grievous to be borne, and laying them on 

7515 little children's shoulders, like the Scribes and 
Pharisees of old, and not touching the same with 
one of his fingers; for he had plenty of money, 
and a fine house to live in, and so forth; which 
was more than the poor little turnips had. 

7520 But when he got near, he looked so big and 
burly and dictatorial, and shouted so loud to 
Tom, to come and be examined, that Tom ran 
for his life, and the dog too. And really it was 
time; for the poor turnips, in their hurry and 

7525 fright, crammed themselves so fast to be ready 
for the Examiner, that they burst and popped 
by dozens all round him, till the place sounded 
like Aldershot on a field-day, and Tom thought 
he should be blown into the air, dog and all. 

7530 As he went down to the shore he passed the 
poor turnip's new tomb. But Mrs. Bedoneby- 
asyoudid had taken away the epitaph about 
talents and precocity and development, and put' 
up one of her own instead which Tom thought 

7535 much more sensible: — 

Instruction sore long time I bore, 

And cramming was in vain; 
Till heaven did please my woes to ease, 

With water on the brain. 



The Water-Babies jog 

So Tom jumped into the sea, and swam on his 7540 
way, singing: — 

Farewell, Tomtoddies all; I thank my stars 

That nought I know save those three royal r's: 

Reading and riting sure, with rithmetick, 

Will help a lad of sense through thin and thick. 7545 

Whereby you may see that Tom was no poet: 

but no more was John Bunyan, though he was 

as wise a man as you will meet in a month of 

Sundays. 
And next he came to Oldwivesfabledom, 7550 

where the folks were all heathens, and worshipped 

a howling ape. 

And there he found a little boy sitting in the 

middle of the road, and crying bitterly. 

"What are you crying for?" said Tom. 7555 

" Because I am not as frightened as I could 

wish to be." 

"Not frightened? You are a queer little 

chap: but, if you want to be frightened, here 

goes — Boo!" 7560 

"Ah," said the little boy, "that is very kind 

of you ; but I don't feel that it has made any 

impression." 

Tom offered to upset him, punch him, stamp 

on him, fettle him over the head with a brick, 7565 

or anything else whatsoever which would give 

him the slightest comfort. 

But he only thanked Tom very civilly, in 



jio The Water-Babies 

fine long words which he had heard other folk 

7570 use, and which, therefore, he thought were fit 
and proper to use himself; and cried on till his 
papa and mamma came, and sent off for the 
Powwow man immediately. And a very good- 
natured gentleman and lady they were, though 

7575 they were heathens; and talked quite pleasantly 
to Tom about his travels, till the Powwow man 
arrived, with his thunderbox under his arm. 

And a well-fed, ill-favoured gentleman he was, 
as ever served Her Majesty at Portland. Tom 

7580 was a little frightened at first; for he thought 
it was Grimes. But he soon saw his mistake: 
for Grimes always looked a man in the face ; and 
this fellow never did. And when he spoke, it 
was fire and smoke; and when he sneezed, it 

7585 was squibs and crackers; and when he cried 
(which he did whenever it paid him), it was 
boiling pitch ; and some of it was sure to stick. 

"Here we are again!" cried he, like the clown 
in a pantomime. "So you can't feel frightened, 

7590 my little dear — eh? I'll do that for you. I'll 
make an impression on you! Yah! Boo! 
Whirroo! Hullabaloo!" 

And he rattled, thumped, brandished his thun- 
derbox, yelled, shouted, raved, roared, stamped, 

7595 and danced corrobory like any black fellow ; and 
then he touched a spring in the thunderbox, and 
out popped turnip-ghosts and magic-lanthorns 



The Water-Babies ju 

and pasteboard bogies and spring-heeled Jacks, 
and sallaballas, with such a horrid din, clatter, 
clank, roll, rattle, and roar, that the little boy7eoo 
turned up the whites of his eyes, and fainted 
right away. 

And at that his poor heathen papa and mamma 
were as much delighted as if they had found 
a gold mine; and fell down upon their knees 7eo5 
before the Powwow man, and gave him a palan- 
quin with a pole of solid silver and curtains of 
cloth of gold ; and carried him about in it on their 
own backs: but as soon as they had taken him 
up, the pole stuck to their shoulders, and they76io 
could not set him down any more, but carried 
him willynilly, as Sinbad carried the old man 
of the sea: which was a pitiable sight to see; for 
the father was a very brave officer, and wore two 
swords and a blue button; and the mother was7ei5 
as pretty a lady as ever had pinched feet like a 
Chinese. But you see, they had chosen to do 
a foolish thing just once too often; so, by the 
laws of Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, they had to go 
on doing it whether they chose or not, till the 7620 
coming of the Cocqcigrues. 

Ah! don't you wish that some one would go 
and convert those poor heathens, and teach them 
not to- frighten their little children into fits? 

"Now, then," said the Powwow man to Tom, 7625 
"wouldn't you like to be frightened, my little 



312 The Water-Babies 

dear? For I can see plainly that you are a very 
wicked, naughty, graceless, reprobate boy." 
"You're another," quoth Tom, very sturdily. 

7630 And when the man ran at him, and cried "Boo!" 
Tom ran at him in return, and cried "Boo!" like- 
wise, right in his face, and set the little dog upon 
him ; and at his legs the dog went. 
At which, if you will believe it, the fellow 

7835 turned tail, thunderbox and all, with a "Woof!" 
like an old sow on the common; and ran for his 
life, screaming, "Help! thieves! murder! fire! 
He is going to kill me ! I am a ruined man ! He 
will murder me; and break, burn, and destroy 

7640 my precious and invaluable thunderbox; and 
then you will have no more thunder-showers 
in the land. Help! help! help!" 

At which the papa and mamma and all the 
people of Oldwivesfabledom flew at Tom, 

7645 shouting, "Oh, the wicked, imptident, hard- 
hearted, graceless boy! Beat him, kick him, 
shoot him, drown him, hang him, burn him!" 
and so forth: but luckily they had nothing to 
shoot, hang, or burn him with, for the fairies had 

7650 hid all the killing-tackle out of the way a little 
while before; so they could only pelt him with 
stones ; and some of the stones went clean through 
him, and came out the other side. But he did 
not mind that a bit ; for the holes closed up 

7655 again as fast as they were made, because he 



The Water-Babies 313 

was a water-baby. However, he was very glad 
when he was safe out of the country, for the 
noise there made him all but deaf. 

Then he came to a very quiet place, called 
Leaveheavenalone. And there the sun wasveeo 
drawing water out of the sea to make steam- 
threads, and the wind was twisting them up 
to make cloud-patterns, till they had worked 
between them the loveliest wedding veil of 
Chantilly lace, and hung it up in their own 7663 
Crystal Palace for any one to buy who could 
afford it; while the good old sea never grudged, 
for she knew they would pay her back honestly. 
So the sun span, and the wind wove, and all went 
well with the great steam-loom; as is likely, 76?o 
considering — and considering — and considering — 

And at last, after innumerable adventures, 
each more wonderful than the last, he saw before 
him a huge building, much bigger, and — what 
is most surprising — a little uglier than a certain 7675 
new lunatic asylum, but not built quite of the 
same materials. None of it, at least — or, indeed, 
for aught that I ever saw, any part of any other 
building whatsoever — is cased with nine-inch 
brick inside and out, and filled up with rubble 7680 
between the walls, in order that any gentleman 
who has been confined during Her Majesty's 
pleasure may be unconfined during his own 
pleasure, and take a walk in the neighbouring 



J14 The Water-Babies 

7685 park to improve his spirits, after an hour's 
light and wholesome labour with his dinner-fork 
or one of the legs of his iron bedstead. No. 
The walls of this building were built on an 
entirely different principle, which need not be 

7690 described, as it has not yet been discovered. 

Tom walked towards this great building, 
wondering what it was, and having a strange 
fancy that he might find Mr. Grimes inside it, 
till he saw running toward him, and shouting 

7695 "Stop!" three or four people, who, when they 
came nearer, were nothing else than policemen's 
truncheons, running along without legs or arms. 

Tom was not astonished. He was long past 
that. Besides, he had seen the naviculae in the 

7700 water move nobody knows how, a hundred times, 
without arms, or legs, or anything to stand in 
their stead. Neither was he frightened; for he 
had been doing no harm. 

So he stopped; and, when the foremost trun- 

7705 cheon came up and asked his business, he showed 
Mother Carey's pass; and the truncheon looked 
at it in the oddest fashion; for he had one eye 
in the middle of his upper end, so that when he 
looked at anything, being quite stiff, he had to 

7710 slope himself, and poke himself, till it was a 
wonder why he did not tumble over ; but, being 
quite full of the spirit of justice (as all police- 
men, and their truncheons, ought to be), he was 



The Water-Babies jjc 

always in a position of stable equilibrium, 
whichever way he put himself. 7715 

"All right — pass on," said he at last. And 
then he added: "I had better go with you, 
young man." And Tom had no objection, for 
such company was both respectable and safe; 
so the truncheon coiled its thong neatly round 7720 
its handle, to prevent tripping itself up — for the 
thong had got loose in running — and marched 
on by Tom's side. 

"Why have you no policeman to carry you?" 
asked Tom, after a while. 7725 

"Because we are not like those clumsy-made 
truncheons in the land-world, which cannot go 
without having a whole man to carry them 
about. We do our own work for ourselves; and 
do it very well, though I say it who should not." 7730 

"Then why have you a thong to your handle?" 
asked Tom. 

"To hang ourselves up by, of course, when we 
are off duty." 

Tom had got his answer, and had no more to 7735 
say, till they came up to the great iron door 
of the prison. And there the truncheon knocked 
twice, with its own head. 

A wicket in the door opened, and out looked a 
tremendous old brass blunderbuss charged up to 7740 
the muzzle with slugs, who was the porter; and 
Tom started back a little at the sight of him. 



31 6 The Water -Babies 

"What case is this?" he asked in a deep voice, 
. out of his broad bell mouth. 
7745 "If you please, sir, it is no case; only a young 
gentleman from her ladyship, who wants to see 
Grimes, the master-sweep." 

"Grimes?" said the blunderbuss. And he 
pulled in his muzzle, perhaps to look over his 
7750 prison-lists. 

"Grimes is up chimney No. 345," he said from 
inside. "So the young gentleman had better go 
on to the roof." 

Tom looked up at the enormous wall, which 
7755 seemed at least ninety miles high, and wondered 
how he should ever get up: but, when he hinted 
that to the truncheon, it settled the matter in a 
moment. For it whisked round, and gave him such 
a shove behind as sent him up to the roof in no 
7760 time, with his little dog under his arm. 

And there he walked along the leads, till he met 
another truncheon, and told him his errand. 

"Very good," it said. "Come along: but it 

will be of no use. He is the most unremorseful, 

7765 hard-hearted, foul-mouthed fellow I have in 

charge; and thinks about nothing but beer and 

pipes, which are not allowed here, of course." 

So they walked along over the leads, and very 
sooty they were, and Tom thought the chimneys 
7770 must want sweeping very much. But he was sur- 
prised to see that the soot did not stick to his feet, 



The Water -Babies 317 

or dirty them in the least. Neither did the live . 
coals, which were lying about in plenty, burn 
him; for, being a water-baby, his radical humours 
were of a moist and cold nature, as you may read 7775 
at large in Lemnius, Cardan, Van Helmont, and 
other gentlemen, who knew as much as they could, 
and no man can know more. 
' And at last they came to chimney No. 345. 
Out of the top of it, his head and shoulders just7?8o 
showing, stuck poor Mr. Grimes, so sooty, and 
bleared, and ugly, that Tom could hardly bear to 
look at him. And in his mouth was a pipe ; but it 
was not a-light ; though he was pulling at it with 
all his might. 7785 

' 'Attention, Mr. Grimes," said the truncheon; 
''here is a gentleman come to see you." 

But Mr. Grimes only said bad words ; and kept 
grumbling, "My pipe won't draw. My pipe won't 
draw." 7790 

"Keep a civil tongue, and attend!" said the 
truncheon ; and popped up just like Punch, hitting 
Grimes such a crack over the head with itself, that 
his brains rattled inside like a dried walnut in its 
shell. He tried to get his hands out, and rub the 7795 
place : but he could not, for they were stuck fast 
in the chimney. Now he was forced to attend. 

"Hey!" he said, "why, it's Tom! I suppose 
you have come here to laugh at me, you spiteful 
little atomy?" . 7800 



ji8 The Water-Babies 

Tom assured him he had not, but only wanted 
to help him. 

"I don't want anything except beer, and that I 
can't get ; and a light to this bothering pipe, and 
7805 that I can't get either." 

"I'll get you one," said Tom; and he took up a 
live coal (there were plenty lying about) and put 
it to Grimes' pipe : but it went out instantly. 

"It's no use," said the truncheon, leaning itself 

78io up against the chimney and looking on. "I tell 

you, it is no use. His heart is so cold that it 

freezes everything that comes near him. You 

will see that presently, plain enough." 

"Oh, of course, it's my fault. Everything's 
7815 always my fault," said Grimes. "Now don't go 
to hit me again" (for the truncheon started up- 
right, and looked very wicked); "you know, if 
my arms were only free, you daren't hit me then." 

The truncheon leant back against the chimney, 

7820 and took no notice of the personal insult, like a 

well-trained policeman as it was, though he was 

ready enough to avenge any transgression against 

morality or order. 

"But can't I help you in any other way? Can't 
7825 1 help you to get out of this chimney?" said Tom. 

"No," interposed the truncheon; "he has come 
to the place where everybody must help them- 
selves; and he will find it out, I hope, before he 
has done with me." 



The Water-Babies jig 

' 'Oh, yes," said Grimes, "of course it's me. Did 7330 
I ask to be brought here into the prison? Did 
I ask to be set to sweep your foul chimneys? 
Did I ask to have lighted straw put under me 
to make me go up? Did I ask to stick fast in 
the very first chimney of all, because it was 7835 
so shamefully clogged up with soot ? Did I ask to 
stay here — I don't know how long — a hundred 
years, I do believe, and never get my pipe, nor my 
beer, nor nothing fit for a beast, let alone a man?" 

"No," answered a solemn voice behind. "No784o 
more did Tom, when you behaved to him in the 
very same way." 

It was Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid. And, when 
the truncheon saw her, it started bolt upright — 
Attention! — and made such a low bow, that if it 7845 
had not been full of the spirit of justice, it must 
have tumbled on its end, and probably hurt its 
one eye. And Tom made his bow too. 

"Oh, ma'am," he said, "don't think about me; 
that's all past and gone, and good times and badvsso 
times and all times pass over. But may not I 
help poor Mr. Grimes ? Mayn't I try and get some 
of these bricks away, that he may move his arms?" 

"You may try, of course," she said. 

So Tom pulled and tugged at the bricks: but tsss 
he could not move one. And then he tried to 
wipe Mr. Grimes' face: but the soot would not 
come off. 



320 The Water-Babies 

"Oh, dear!" he said. "I have come all this 
7860 way, through all these terrible places, to help 
you, and now I am of no use at all." 

"You had best leave me alone," said Grimes; 

"you are a good-natured forgiving little chap, 

and that's truth; but you'd best be off. The 

7865 hail's coming on soon, and it will beat the eyes 

out of your little head." 

"What hail?" 

"Why, hail that falls every evening here; and, 
till it comes close to me, it's like so much warm 
7870 rain : but then it turns to hail over my head, and 
knocks me about like small shot." 

"That hail will never come any more," said the 

strange lady. "I have told you before what it 

was. It was your mother's tears, those which she 

7875 shed when she prayed for you by her bedside ; but 

your cold heart froze it into hail. But she is gone 

to heaven now, and will weep no more for her 

graceless son." 

Then Grimes was silent awhile; and then he 

7880 looked very sad. 

"So my old mother's gone, and I never there to 

speak to her! Ah! a good woman she was, and 

might have been a happy one, in her little school 

there in Vendale, if it hadn't been for me and my 

7885 bad ways." 

"Did she keep the school in Vendale?" asked 
Tom. And then he told Grimes all the story of 



The Water -Babies 321 

his going to her house, and how she could not 
abide the sight of a chimney-sweep, and then how 
kind she was, and how he turned into a water-baby, mo 

"Ah!" said Grimes, "good reason she had to 
hate the sight of a chimney-sweep. I ran away 
from her and took up with the sweeps, and never 
let her know where I was, nor sent her a penny 
to help her, and now it's too late — too late!" said 7895 
Mr. Grimes. 

And he began crying and blubbering like a great 
baby, till his pipe dropped out of his mouth, and 
broke all to bits. 

"Oh, dear, if I was but a little chap in Vendale79oo 
again, to see the clear beck, and the apple- 
orchard, and the yew-hedge, how different I would 
go on! But it's too late now. So you go along, 
you kind little chap, and don't stand to look at a 
man crying, that's old enough to be your father, 7905 
and never feared the face of man, nor of worse 
neither. But I'm beat now, and beat I must be. 
I've made my bed, and I must lie on it. Foul 
I would be, and foul I am, as an Irishwoman said 
to me once; and little I heeded it. It's all my 7910 
own fault: but it's too late." And he cried so 
bitterly that Tom began crying too. 

"Never too late," said the fairy, in such a 
strange soft new voice that Tom looked up at her ; 
and she was so beautiful for the moment, that 7915 
Tom half fancied she was her sister. 



322 The Water-Babies 

No more was it too late. For, as poor Grimes 
cried and blubbered on, his own tears did what his 
mother's could not do, and Tom's could not do, 

7920 anci nobody's on earth could do for him; for they 
washed the soot off his face and off his clothes; 
and then they washed the mortar away from 
between the bricks; and the chimney crumbled 
down ; and Grimes began to get out of it. 

7925 Up jumped the truncheon, and was going to 
hit him on the crown a tremendous thump, and 
drive him down again like a cork into a bottle. 
But the strange lady put it aside. 
4 'Will you obey me if I give you a chance?" 

7930 "As you please, ma'am. You're stronger than 
me — that I know too well, and wiser than me, 
I know too well also. And, as for being my own 
master, I've fared ill enough with that as yet. 
So whatever your ladyship pleases to order me; 

7935 for I'm beat, and that's the truth." 

"Be it so then — you may come out. But 
remember, disobey me again, and into a worse 
place still you go." 

"I beg pardon, ma'am, but I never disobeyed 

7940 you that I know of. I never had the honour of 
setting eyes upon you till I came to these ugly 
quarters." 

"Never saw me? Who said to you, Those that 
will be foul, foul they will be?" 

7945 Grimes looked up ; and Tom looked up too ; for 



The Water-Babies 323 

the voice was that of the Irishwoman who met 
them the day that they went out together to 
Harthover. "I gave you your warning then : but 
you gave it yourself a thousand times before and 
since. Every bad word that you said — every cruel 7950 
and mean thing that you did — every time that you 
got tipsy — every day that you went dirty — you 
were disobeying me, whether you knew it or not." 

"If I'd only known, ma'am " 

"You knew well enough that you were disobey- 7955 
ing something, though you did not know it was 
me. But come out and take your chance. Per- 
haps it may be your last." 

So Grimes stepped out of the chimney, and 
really, if it had not been for the scars on his face, 7900 
he looked as clean and respectable as a master- 
sweep need look. 

"Take him away," said she to the truncheon, 
"and give him his ticket-of -leave." 

"And what is he to do, ma'am?" 7955 

"Get him to sweep out the crater of Etna; he 
will find some very steady men working out their 
time there, who will teach him his business: 
but mind, if that crater gets choked again, and 
there is an earthquake in consequence, bring them 7970 
all to me, and I shall investigate the case very 
severely." 

So the truncheon marched off Mr. Grimes, 
looking as meek as a drowned worm. 



324 The Water-Babies 

7975 And for aught I know, or do not know, he is 
sweeping the crater of Etna to this very day. 

"And now," said the fairy to Tom, "your work 

here is done. You may as well go back again." 

"I should be glad enough to go," said Tom, 

7980 "but how am I to get up that great hole again, 
now the steam has stopped blowing?" 

"I will take you up the backstairs: but I must 
bandage your eyes first ; for I never allow anybody 
to see those backstairs of mine." 

7985 "I am sure I shall not tell anybody about them, 
ma'am, if you bid me not." 

"Aha! So you think, my little man. But 
you would soon forget your promise if you got 
back into the land-world. For, if people only 

7990 once found out that you had been up my back- 
stairs, you would have all the fine ladies kneeling 
to you, and the rich men emptying their purses 
before you, and statesmen offering you place and 
power ; and young and old, rich and poor, crying 

7995 to you, 'Only tell us the great backstairs secret, 
and we will be your slaves; we will make you 
lord, king, emperor, bishop, archbishop, pope, if 
you like — only tell us the secret of the backstairs. 
For thousands of years we have been paying, and 

sooo petting, and ©beying, and worshipping quacks 
who told us they had the key of the backstairs, 
and could smuggle us up them; and in spite of 
all our disappointments, we will honour, and 



The Water-Babies 32$ 

glorify, and adore, and beatify, and translate, 
and apotheotise you likewise, on the chance ofsoos 
your knowing something about the backstairs, 
that we may all go on pilgrimage to it ; and, even 
if we cannot get up it, lie at the foot of it, and cry — 

'Oh, backstairs, 

precious backstairs, comfortable backstairs, soio 

invaluable backstairs, humane backstairs, 

requisite backstairs, reasonable backstairs, 

necessary backstairs, long-sought backstairs, 

good-natured backstairs, coveted backstairs, 

cosmopolitan backstairs, aristocratic backstairs, sois 

comprehensive backstairs, respectable backstairs, 

accommodating backstairs, gentlemanlike backstairs, 

well-bred backstairs, ladylike backstairs, 

commercial backstairs, orthodox backstairs, 

economical backstairs, probable backstairs, 8020 

practical backstairs, credible backstairs, 

logical backstairs, demonstrable backstairs, 

deductive backstairs, irrefragable backstairs, 
potent backstairs, 
all-but-omnipotent backstairs, 8025 

&c. 

Save us from the consequences of our own 
actions, and from the cruel fairy, Mrs. Bedoneby- 
asyoudid ! ' Do not you think that you would be 
a little tempted then to tell what you know, 8030 
laddie?" 



326 The Water-Babies 

Tom thought so certainly. "But why do they 
want so to know about the backstairs?" asked 
he, being a little frightened at the long words, 

8035 and not understanding them the least ; as, indeed, 
he was not meant to do, or you either. 

"That I shall not tell you. I never put things 
into little folks' heads which are but too likely 
to come there of themselves. So come — now I 

sow must bandage your eyes." So she tied the 
bandage on his eyes with one hand, and with 
the other she took it off. 

"Now," she said, "you are safe up the stairs." 
Tom opened his eyes very wide, and his mouth 

8045 too; for he had not, as he thought, moved a 
single step. But, when he looked round him, 
there could be no doubt that he was safe up the 
backstairs, whatsoever they may be, which no 
man is going to tell you, for the plain reason that 

8050 no man knows. 

The first thing which Tom saw was the black 
cedars, high and sharp against the rosy dawn; 
and St. Brandan's Isle reflected double in the 
still broad silver sea. The wind sang softly in 

8055 the cedars, and the water sang among the caves: 
the sea-birds sang as they streamed out into the 
ocean, and the land-birds as they built among the 
boughs; and the air was so full of song that it 
stirred St. Brandan and his hermits, as they 

sooo slumbered in the shade; and they moved their 



The Water-Babies 327 



^ood old lips, and sang their morning hymn amid 
their dreams. But among all the songs one came 
across the water more sweet and clear than all; 
for it was the song of a young girl's voice. 

And what was the song which she sang? Ah, soeo 
my little man, I am too old to sing that song, 
and you too young to understand it. But have 
patience, and keep your eye single, and your 
hands clean, and you will learn some day to sing it 
yourself, without needing any man to teach you. 8070 

And as Tom neared the island, there sat upon 
a rock the most graceful creature that ever was 
seen, looking down, with her chin upon her 
hand, and paddling with her feet in the water. 
And when they came to her she looked up, andso75 
behold it was Ellie. 

"Oh, Miss Ellie," said he, "how you are grown!" 

"Oh, Tom," said she, "how you are grown too!" 

And no wonder ; they were both quite grown up 
— he into a tall man, and she into a beautiful soco 
woman. 

"Perhaps I may be grown," she said. "I have 
had time enough; for I have been sitting here 
waiting for you many a hundred years, till I 
thought you were never coming." soss 

"Many a hundred years?" thought Tom; but 
he had seen so much in his travels that he had 
quite given up being astonished; and, indeed, 
he could think of nothing but Ellie. So he stood 



J28 The Water-Babies 

8090 and looked at Ellie, and Ellie looked at him ; and 
they liked the employment so much that they 
stood and looked for seven years more, and neither 
spoke nor stirred. 
At last they heard the fairy say: "Attention, 
8095 children. Are you never going to look at me 
again ?" 

"We have been looking at you all this while," 
they said. And so they thought they had been. 
"Then look at me once more," said she. 
woo They looked — and both of them cried out at 
once, "Oh, who are you, after all?" 

"You are our dear Mrs. Doasyouwouldbe- 
doneby." 

"No, you are good Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid ; 
8105 but you are grown quite beautiful now!" 

"To you," said the fairy. "But look again." 
"You are Mother Carey, ' ' said Tom, in a very low, 
solemn voice; for he had found out something 
which made him very happy, and yet frightened 
siio him more than all that he had ever seen. 
"But you are grown quite young again." 
"To you," said the fairy. "Look again." 
"You are the Irishwoman who met me the 
day I went to Harthover!" 
ens And when they looked she was neither of them, 
and yet all of them at once. 

"My name is written in my eyes, if you have 
eyes to see it there." 



The Water-Babies 32Q 

And they looked into her great, deep, soft eyes, 
and they changed again and again into every 8120 
hue, as the light changes in a diamond. 

4 'Now read my name," said she, at last. 

And her eyes flashed, for one moment, clear, 
white, blazing light: but the children could not 
read her name; for they were dazzled, and hidsm 
their faces in their hands. 

"Not yet, young things, not yet," said she, 
smiling; and then she turned to Ellie. 

"You may take him home with you now on 
Sundays, Ellie. He has won his spurs in thesi3o 
great battle, arid become fit to go with you and be 
a man; because he has done the thing he did 
not like." 

So Tom went home with Ellie on Sundays, 
and sometimes on week-days, too ; and he is now 8135 
a great man of science, and can plan railroads, 
and steam-engines, and electric telegraphs, and 
rifled guns, and so forth; and knows everything 
about everything, except why a hen's egg don't 
turn into a crocodile, and two or three other lit- sho 
tie things which no one will know till the coming of 
the Cocqcigrues. And all this from what he learnt 
when he was a water-baby, underneath the sea. 

"And of course Tom married Ellie?" 

My dear child, what a silly notion! Don't yousus 
know that no one ever marries in a fairy tale, 
under the rank of a prince or a princess? 



jjo The Water-Babies 

"And Tom's dog?" 

Oh, you may see him any clear night in July; 
8150 for the old dog-star was so worn out by the last 
three hot summers that there have been no dog- 
days since; so that they had to take him down 
and put Tom's dog up in his place. Therefore, as 
new brooms sweep clean, we may hope for some 
8155 warm weather this year. And that is the end 
of my story. 



MORAL 

And now, my dear little man, what should we 
learn from this parable? 

We should learn thirty-seven or thirty-nine 
things, I am not exactly sure which: but one thing, gieo 
at least, we may learn, and that is this — when we 
see efts in the pond, never to throw stones at them, 
or catch them with crooked pins, or put them into 
vivariums with sticklebacks, that the sticklebacks 
may prick them in their poor little stomachs, andtm 
make them jump out of the glass into somebody's 
work-box, and so come to a bad end. For these efts 
are nothing else but the water-babies who are stupid 
and dirty, and will not learn their lessons and keep 
themselves clean; and, therefore (as comparative sno 
anatomists will tell you fifty years hence, though 
they are not learned enough to tell you now), their 
skulls grow flat, their jaws grow out, and their 
brains grow small, and their tails grow long, and 
they lose all their ribs (which I am sure you would sus 
not like to do), and their skins grow dirty and 
spotted, and they never get into the clear rivers, 
much less into the great wide sea, but hang about 
in dirty ponds, and live in the mud, and eat worms, 
as they deserve to do. siso 

But that is no reason why you should ill-use 
them: but only why you should pity them, and be 
kind to them, and hope that some day they will 

{331] 



332 The Water-Babies 

wake up, and be ashamed of their nasty, dirty, lazy, 

to& stupid life, and try to amend, and become something 
better once more. For, perhaps, if they do so, then 
after ^79A 2 3 y^ ars , nine months, thirteen days, 
two hours, and twenty -one minutes (for aught that 
appears to be contrary), if they work very hard and 

mo wash very hard all that time, their brains may grow 
bigger, and their jaws grow smaller, and their 
ribs come back, and their tails wither off, and they 
will turn into water-babies again, and perhaps after 
that into land-babies; and after that perhaps into 

8i95 grown men. 

You know they won't f Very well, I daresay you 
know best. But you see, some folks have a great 
liking for those poor little efts. They never did 
anybody any harm-, or could if they tried; and their 

8200 only fault is, that they do no good — any more than 
some thousands of their betters. But what with 
ducks, and what with pike, and what with stickle- 
backs, and what with water-beetles, and what with 
naughty boys, they are il sae sair hadden doun" as 

8205 the Scotsmen say, that it is a wonder how they live; 

and some folks can't help hoping, with good Bishop 

Butler, that they may have another chance, to make 

things fair and even, somewhere, somewhen, somehow. 

Meanwhile, do yjm learn your lessons, and 

8210 thank God that you have plenty of cold water to 
wash in; and wash in it too, like a true English- 
man. And then, if my story is not true, something 



The Water-Babies 



333 



better is; and if I am not quite right, still you will 
be, as long as you stick to hard work and cold water. 

But remember always, as I told you at -first, thatwu 
this is all a fairy tale, and only fun and pretence: 
and, therefore, you are not to believe a word of it, 
even if it is true. 





<fi|mrl*# ^mjjsi^. 




A BIOGRAPHICAL 
SKETCH 



sp^sy^ 




CHARLES KINGSLEY was one of the great 
men of his time. He was great in more ways 
than one. To begin with, he was a kind- 
hearted, hard-working clergyman who looked after 
the bodily comfort of his parishioners while leading 
them in the paths of righteousness. He was a 
teacher, lecturer, and essayist of unusual power, 
devoting himself particularly to historical topics, 
but stepping aside often to write most entertainingly 
on the natural sciences. He wrote and spoke with 
great earnestness, also, on the subjects which con- 
cerned the happiness and welfare of the laboring 
men of the time, having great influence over them. 
As a novelist he was the author of books which are 
still of absorbing interest. His poetry includes some 
of the choicest lyrics in our language. And lastly, 
he was the writer of charming stories for children, 
stories so true and beautiful that they will help to 
keep his name before men when much of his more 
serious work is forgotten. 

Kingsley's father was an English clergyman born 
of a race of soldiers. His mother, the daughter of a 
judge and a native of the West Indies, had been 
brought up in England and was a remarkable woman. 
From her he inherited his love of travel, science, 
literature, and romance, as well as his sense of humor 
and his energy and originality, — that is, the power 
of doing things in a new and perhaps better way, 
instead of following the beaten track. 



[ 333 ] 



jj6 A Biographical Sketch 

Charles was born on the 12th of June, 1819, at 
Holne in Devonshire. While he was yet very young 
his father moved to Barnack in Nottinghamshire, 
where for six years the boy enjoyed the strange 
beauty of the Fen country. The Fens are low, flat 
lands lying along the rivers, somewhat swampy in 
places. They are covered with a rank growth of 
grasses, sedges, and wild flowers, and are the home 
of many varieties of butterflies, beetles, dragon 
flies, and other insects. At the time when Charles 
Kingsley lived there the region abounded in wild 
fowl which offered good sport for his father, who 
was fond of hunting. There were curlews, coots, 
bitterns, sedge birds, ruffs, reeves, spoonbills, avo- 
sets, snipe, and wild swans, "while overhead hung 
motionless, hawk beyond hawk, buzzard beyond 
buzzard, kite beyond kite, as far as eye could 
see." In Mr. Kingsley 's novel, Hereward the Wake, 
he gives us many vivid pictures of the interesting 
Fen country. 

Charles, with his naturalist's tastes, found an 
abundance of material for study, and at the age of 
eleven had become familiar with all the wild things 
around him — plants, insects, and birds. Then his 
father returned to Devonshire, this time to Clovelly 
on the north coast, where Charles learned to know 
and love the sea. This queer little fishing town is 
built on the steep side of a cliff and is invisible to 
one approaching by land. There are no such streets 
as we are accustomed to, only narrow lanes paved 
with stone steps, up and down which the simple 
fisher folk must climb to go from one part of the 
town to another. The climate is so moist that 
everything, is green with clinging vines and shrubs ; 
this wealth of vegetation gives a quaint beauty to 
the old stone cottages in which the people of 
Clovelly live. 



A Biographical Sketch 337 

Different flowers and other forms of animal life 
were here for Charles to study, and especially the 
tiny sea creatures showed him a new world of 
wonders. Here he found in the brave, hardy fisher- 
men and sailors quite a different kind of men from 
the inhabitants of the Fens, and the family life, 
connected as it was with the interests and dangers of 
the seafaring population, was full of romance and 
excitement. Years afterward, when one night he 
walked his study floor in great trouble, the scenes of 
his early life at Clovelly came back, flooding his 
mind with recollections of danger and sorrow, and 
he wrote the lyric (song-poem) which is perhaps his 
best, "The Three Fishers." 

The Three Fishers 

Three fishers went sailing away to the West, 

Away to the West as the sun went down; 
Each thought on the woman who loved him the best, 
And the children stood watching them out of the town; 
For men must work, and women must weep, 
And there's little to earn and many to keep, 
Though the harbour bar be moaning. 

Three wives sat up in the lighthouse tower, 

And they trimmed the lamps as the sun went down ; 
They looked at the squall, and they looked at the shower, 
And the night-rack came rolling up ragged and brown. 
But men must work, and women must weep, 
Though storms be sudden, and waters deep, 
And the harbour bar be moaning. 

Three corpses lay out on the shining sands 

In the morning gleam as the tide went down, 
And the women are weeping and wringing their hands 
For those who will never come home to the town; 
For men must work, and women must weep, 
And the sooner it's over, the sooner to sleep ; 
And good-bye to the bar and its moaning. 

At twelve years of age Charles was sent away to 
school, first to Clifton, later to Helston, private 



3j# A Biographical Sketch 

schools with but few pupils. Though not a remark- 
able student in the regular classical lines, he took 
an unusual interest in botany, geology, and kindred 
subjects, showing an enthusiasm and knowledge 
beyond that of his schoolmates. He was never an 
expert at games, though fond of sport, strong, active, 
and agile. 

The Reverend R. C. Powles, who was a good friend 
of his at Helston and for the remainder of his life, 
writes thus of Charles : 

"Our play -ground was separated by a lane, not 
very narrow, and very deep, from a field on the 
opposite side. To jump from the play -ground wall 
to the wall opposite, and to jump back, was a con- 
siderable trial of nerve and muscle. The walls, 
which were not quite on a level, were rounded at the 
top, and a fall into the deep lane must have involved 
broken bones. This jump was one of Charles's 
favourite performances. Again, I remember his 
climbing a tall tree to take an egg from a hawk's 
nest. For three or four days he had done this with 
impunity. There came an afternoon, however, when 
the hawk was on her nest, and on the intruder's 
putting in his hand as usual the results were dis- 
astrous. To most boys the surprise of the hawk's 
attack, apart from the pain inflicted by her claws, 
would have been fatal. They would have loosed 
their hold of the tree, and tumbled down. But 
Charles did not flinch. He came down as steadily 
as if nothing had happened, though his wounded 
hand was streaming with blood. It was wonderful 
how well he bore pain. On one occasion, having a 
sore finger, he determined to cure it by cautery. He 
heated the poker red-hot in the school-room fire, 
and calmly applied it two or three times till he 
was satisfied that his object was attained. His own 
endurance of pain did not , however, make him careless 



A Biographical Sketch jjq 

of suffering in others. He was very tenderhearted, often 
more so than his school-fellows could understand." 

At seventeen he became a student at King's 
College, London, and two years later entered the 
University of Cambridge, from which he was gradu- 
ated with honors in 1842. At this period his physi- 
cal endurance was great. One day he walked from 
Cambridge to London, fifty-two miles. For years 
afterward he would take a walk of from twenty to 
twenty-five miles simply for recreation. 

In July of 1842 he was ordained as a clergyman 
and became the curate at Eversley, a little town in 
the northeastern corner of Hampshire. Two years 
later he married and was made the rector. This 
obscure town was his home, except for short inter- 
vals, for thirty-three years, and in its quiet church- 
yard ke lies buried. 

He was always greatly interested in Nature and 
her wonders, and much of his lecturing and writing 
has to do with such subjects. Still more was he 
a student of the science of health, and especially did 
he work to abolish the foul and unwholesome sur- 
roundings of the poor people of England. He was 
the friend of the workingman, and labored con- 
stantly to better the condition of those who were too 
ignorant or too helpless to help themselves. For 
their sakes he drew upon himself the dislike and 
enmity of many people who did not understand what 
he was trying to do. Many of his essays were 
addressed either to the workingmen, who came to 
love and admire him, or to wealthy employers, whom 
he tried to persuade to treat their workmen more 
kindly and justly. 

Meanwhile every year saw a new novel or poem 
from his busy brain. Yeast, Alton Locke, and Two 
Years Ago are novels dealing with the questions 
which were disputed between the workingmen and 



340 A Biographical Sketch 

employers of the time. Hypatia, Westward Ho! and 
Hereward the Wake are historical novels of intense 
interest, the first placed in the early days of Chris- 
tianity, the second concerning the England of Qtueen 
Elizabeth's time, and the third picturing the last 
struggles of the Saxons in England against their 
Norman conquerors. Each is a vivid and truthful 
picture of the time it represents. 

For children he wrote four books, dedicated to 
his own four children: Glaucus; or the Wonders of 
the Shore, The Heroes (Greek stories), The Water- 
Babies ■, and Madame How and Lady Why. Of these 
The Water-Babies is the best. 

Nine years he lectured at Cambridge on modern 
history; his classes were always crowded, and his 
influence over the young men was very great. These 
and many other lectures are published in several 
volumes. His poems, excepting The Saint's Tragedy 
and Andromeda, are for the most part short and 
charmingly original. 

Kingsley's friends were from all ranks of life and 
were closely attached to him. With the Reverend 
Frederick Maurice, a prominent clergyman and 
author, and with Dr. Thomas Hughes, author of 
Tom Brown's School Days and Tom Brown at Oxford, 
he was on very intimate terms. When the weary 
clergyman found it necessary to take a few days or 
weeks of rest he would write to Dr. Hughes or to Mr. 
Froude or to Mr. Maurice and ask him to join him in a 
fishing excursion, perhaps near home, perhaps as 
far as the beautiful Irish lake of Killamey, or the 
sparkling mountain streams of Snowdon in Wales. 
Frequently these letters were in funny, jingling 
verses, but not without a few lines of earnest thought. 
Here is a scrap from an invitation to "Tom" 
Hughes which shows the kindly, reverent, unselfish 
spirit of the man: 



A Biographical Sketch 341 

Tho' we earn our bread, Tom, 
3y the dirty pen, 
What we can we will be, 
Honest Englishmen. 
Do the work that's nearest, 
Though it's dull at whiles, 
Helping, when we meet them, 
Lame dogs over stiles ; 
See in every hedgerow 
Marks of angels' feet, 
Epics in each pebble 
Underneath our feet. 

- Kingsley received many marks of favor from the 
royal family. The Prince of Wales, afterward King 
Edward, was his pupil, coming to his house three 
times a week. Mr. Gladstone, the great prime 
minister of England, at the queen's request appointed 
Kingsley Canon of Chester, and later Canon of 
Westminster. He preached in Westminster Abbey 
not long before his death; the great church was 
crowded with eager listeners. 

The year before his death he traveled in America 
with his daughter Rose, his son Maurice having 
settled in Colorado as a civil engineer. While in 
the United States he was in poor health, as had 
often been the case with him, for he constantly over- 
worked; but he lectured and preached in many 
places and was entertained gladly by our most 
distinguished citizens, who delighted to honor the 
famous Englishman. 

On the 23d of January, 1875, Canon Kingsley died 
at his home in Eversley, and in the little churchyard 
there he was buried. Place was offered for him in 
Westminster Abbey, where lie so many of England's 
famous and honored dead; but his family and 
friends knew that he would have preferred to sleep 
at Eversley, where he had lived so long and worked 
so lovingly. 

Whatever Charles Kingsley did he entered into 



342 



A Biographical Sketch 



with his whole heart, and his life was so full of kind 
deeds and words that he was widely known and 
loved. Thus he was one of the most useful men who 
ever lived, and "his works do follow him." These 
words seem to have been his motto: 

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with 
thy might." 





(The numbers refer to lines in the text) 
Chapter I 

i . Chimney-sweep. Large houses used to be built 
with huge chimneys which were often crooked, 
because the art of house building was not so well 
understood then as now. The crookedness of the 
flues (smoke passages) and their constant filling up 
with soot from soft coal, which is the only coal used 
in England, made it necessary for them to be cleaned 
out now and then. Boys were trained to climb them 
and brush down the soot, which was caught below 
and carried away. See Lamb's "The Praise of 
Chimney-Sweepers" in Essays of Elia. 

5. North country. The northern part of England, 
near the Scotch border. 

39. Ankle-jacks. Strong shoes covering the ankles. 

80. Flag of truce. Can you tell what is meant by 
the groom being ''under a flag of truce"? 

106. Frame-breaking riots. Riots in factories 
from 181 1 to 181 8, when the owners tried to put in 
new machinery and stop using frames (machines 
for weaving or knitting) worked by hand. The 
rioters smashed the new power looms, fearing that 
because of the invention they might not have work 
enough to make a living. 

107. Duke of Wellington. A great English gen- 
eral and statesman. His most famous act was the 
defeat of the French, emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, 

[343} 



344 Notes 

at the battle of Waterloo in 1815. Later he became 
Prime Minister of England, the highest office under 
the sovereign. 

112. Game-preserves. In Great Britain the game, 
such as deer, hares, partridges, and pheasants, is 
the property of the landowner. The large tract of 
land where the animals are kept is often walled in, 
and is called a game preserve; no one is allowed to 
hunt there except the owner or his guests. The fish 
in the streams also belong to him. He employs 
servants, a head game keeper and his assistants, to 
protect his game from theft. Any one who hunts, 
traps, or fishes without his consent is a "poacher," 
and if caught may be sent to prison. 

113. Collier lads. Men who work in a coal mine 
or colliery. The pit-engine (1. 1 78) is the engine at the 
entrance of a coal mine or pit. Pitmen are colliers. 

138. "Buirdly awd chap." Scotch for "burly old 
fellow." 

139. "Gradely lasses." "Nice girls." 

143. Government National School. A certain 
kind of English public school. In England the public 
schools are most frequently called board schools ; the 
superintendent is called the inspector. 

163. Piert. Pert, lively. 

174. Turnpike. Can you tell if there are any 
roads in the United States on which toll is charged? 
See also "The Toll-Gatherer's Day" in Hawthorne's 
Twice-Told Tales. 

184. Sedges. In what kind of ground do sedges 
grow? See Biographical Sketch, p. 342. 

207. Madder. Does this word refer to the color 
or to the material of the petticoat? (Petticoat here 
means an outside skirt.) 

208. Galway. In what part of Ireland? 

249. Sicily. Tell what you know about Sicily 
and Greece and the nymphs of the fountains. 



Notes 345 

283. Beadle. What does he do? 

309. Copse. Wood. 

309. Martinmas. A festival in honor of St. 
Martin of France, occurring November 11. The 
French, and in America the French Canadians, call 
the Indian summer St. Martin's summer. St. 
Martin preached in France about 370 a.d. 

348. Bogy. Goblin. 

350. Wars of the Roses. English civil wars, 
lasting in all thirty years. They were a series of 
struggles between two branches of the royal family, 
York and Lancaster, settled finally in 1485 when 
Henry VII, a Lancastrian, came to the throne and 
married Elizabeth, the heiress of York. A red 
rose was the badge of the Lancastrians, a white 
rose of the Yorkists. Can you tell what is the 
national flower of England? 

424. Ninety times . . . nineteen styles. What is 
meant by this ? 

428. Anglo-Saxon, Norman, etc. Here we have 
a sample of Kingsley's humor. The different names 
here given are some of them used for mere fun. For 
instance, there is no distinct style of architecture 
known as the Boeotian. Bceotia was a little Greek 
republic in ancient times. Again, he says that the 
grand staircase was copied from something in which 
there is only the simplest kind of stonecutting ; 
while the back staircase is copied from one of the 
most exquisitely carved and ornamented buildings 
in the world. 

English building before the Norman conquest of 
England (1066) is sometimes spoken of as the Saxon 
style. Norman architecture was the style used in 
England in the century following the Norman Con- 
quest. Next followed the Early English, or Pointed; 
this is most frequently called Gothic. Cinque-cento 
(an Italian word) applies to the sixteenth-century 



346 Notes 

style in Italy, which spread over Europe and grad- 
ually displaced the Gothic, receiving different names 
in different countries. In England it became the 
Elizabethan, after Queen Elizabeth, who reigned 
from 1558 to 1603. The Doric is the earliest style, 
or order, of Grecian architecture. The Parthenon, 
the great temple dedicated to Minerva at Athens, and 
now in ruins, is the finest example of the Pure 
Doric style. 

438. Catacombs. Underground cemeteries. The 
most famous are those under the city of Rome, 
which were used as burial places by the early Chris- 
tians during the period when they were severely 
persecuted in the second, third, and fourth centuries. 
These consist of many miles of underground passages, 
a network like a labyrinth, hewn out in the volcanic 
rock. These passages, called galleries, are three or 
four feet in width, and eight or ten feet in height. 
In their side walls are the graves, or tombs. A 
place large enough for one body would be hewn out 
and the body, wrapped in linen, was laid in; then 
the front was closed up by three tiles cemented in 
very neatly. On the surface of the tiles was painted 
or engraved the name and other inscription. The 
tombs were cut in this way, one above another, up 
to the ceiling, usually five in a tier. The galleries 
run into each other at irregular angles, and as there 
is no general plan it would be easy to lose one's way 
among them. Hawthorne, in The Marble Faun, 
has this sentence: "The most awful idea connected 
with the catacombs is their interminable extent, 
and the possibility of going astray in the labyrinth 
of darkness." 

440. Tajmahal. A wonderfully beautiful tomb 
at Agra, India, erected first as a summerhouse for 
his favorite wife by Shah Jehan, an Indian prince, 
about the middle of the seventeenth century. At 



Notes 347 

her deatli it became her tomb, and later, his. It 
is built of white marble, marvelously carved, and 
ornamented with jewels. 

442. Lord Clive. Founder of the British Em- 
pire in India about the middle of the eighteenth 
century. He was at first an employee of the East 
India Company, but circumstances forced him into 
the army in India, and his great natural ability as a 
leader soon brought him to the front. During the 
struggles between the French and English in India 
he gained the advantage, defeating the French and 
subduing the native princes to British rule. The 
story of his life reads like a romance. Macaulay 
has told it most entertainingly. 

445. Elephanta. An island lying in the harbor 
of Bombay, India. A great cave, whose entrance is 
sixty feet wide and eighteen feet high, supported by 
pillars cut in the rock, was excavated many centuries 
ago by the Hindus. It is divided into smaller caves 
whose walls are covered with sculptures representing 
Hindu deities. 

447. Brighton. A fashionable English watering 
place, fifty miles from London, on the seacoast. 
The Pavilion is a large public building, originally 
built (in 1784) as a residence for the Prince of Wales; 
but it is now owned by the city and contains a mu- 
seum, picture gallery, and music hall. Its style is 
described as being "a grotesque imitation of Chinese 
architecture." 

451. Naboth's vineyard. Something which a per- 
son sees always before him, and which he longs to 
get hold of. Read the story in I Kings, xxi, 1-16. 

517. Anastomosing. Kingsley loved to poke fun 
at the scientists, as here, where he mimics the long 
words they use. 

517. Professor Owen. Sir Richard Owen was an 
English naturalist (1804-1892). 



348 Notes 

532. Quality. People of gentle birth, of good 
family. 

632. Lead. Roofs used to be covered with thin 
plates of lead. 

666. Stoat. Ermine. 

690'. Stramash, destruction; charivari, a bur- 
lesque serenade (as on tin pans). 

698. Screaking. Screeching. 

742. Eton. A school for boys founded by King 
Henry VI in 1440 at Eton on the Thames, opposite 
Windsor. 

744. Lawyers. Long, trailing, thorny stems of 
briers or raspberry bushes. 

765. Cover. Underbrush which shelters game. 

768. Moor. Uninclosed waste land often used 
for hunting. 

769. Fell. A height of land in the northern part 
of England, "too lofty for a hill and too smooth for 
a mountain." 

772. ~ Exmoor, A forest region in the extreme 
north of Devonshire. 

804. Plantation. A grove cultivated for its 
wood. 

828. Sharp-nosed creature. Explain Mrs. Vixen 
and her "smutty cubs." What is her "brush"? 

873. Poult. A young chicken, grouse, or part- 
ridge. Add two letters and make a word we use 
frequently. 

901. Air danced reels. Have you ever seen this? 

920. Church-bells. Give a reason why he might 
seem to hear bells ringing. 

967. Hue-and-cry. The shouting crowd follow- 
ing a thief. 

983. Shingle. Water- worn stones, coarser than 
gravel. 

983. Wear = weir. What does it mean ? Explain 
"foaming." 



Notes J4Q 

Chapter II 

1023. High Craven, etc. This journey would 
take one into the counties of Lancashire, York, and 
Cumberland, and along the Scottish border across 
to the North Sea. 

1 1 05. Polyanthus. Primrose. 

1 1.5 1. Great- A. Probably a ditch near Eversley. 

1 166. Chris-cross-row. The alphabet used to be 
printed with a cross before it, from which came the 
name, Christ' s-cross-row. Kingsley here describes 
a "dame's school," that is, a small school for young 
children, especially girls, taught by a woman, who 
instructed her pupils in the alphabet and easy read- 
ing, as well as in sewing and embroidery. 

1183. Beck. A small brook. 

1 185. Clemmed. Pinched, starved. 

1 191. Bairn. What does this word mean, and 
in what country is it used? 

1230. Hap. Wrap, that is, put to bed. 

1 291. Churchman. A regular member of the 
Church of England; an Episcopalian. A Dissenter 
is a member of any other Protestant sect. 

1354. Cousin Cramchild's Conversations. A fancy 
name used by Kingsley in burlesque of the "goody- 
goody" style of books which are intended to inter- 
est and instruct children, but which fail because 
the object is so apparent that it repels the reader. 
"Aunt Agitate's Arguments" (1. 1360) is another such 
burlesque name. 

1358. Thumping on the table. A reference to 
spiritualism, or spirit rapping. Modern spiritualism 
consists in the belief that the spirits of the dead can 
communicate with us through the help of "mediums," 
or people who have the power of receiving their 
messages for us. The communication is occasionally 
carried on by means of knocking on a table. Some- 
times tricky spirits used to tip or turn tables or 



350 Notes 

chairs or other furniture. These ''manifestations" 
began in a small town in New York in 1848, from 
which the excitement spread all over the world. 
Lowell, in The Unhappy Lot of Mr. Knott, gives a 
comic picture of the delusion. 

•1364. Crinoline. A kind of wire skirt which 
ladies used to wear at the time Mr. Kingsley wrote 
this story. It made the dress skirt stand out stiff 
and large. Such a thing would look absurd to us 
now; but when all ladies wore them, one without 
such a skirt would look as odd as a collapsed balloon. 

1378. C'est r amour f etc. French. "Tis love, 
love, love, that makes the world go round." This 
is the refrain of a French song published in 1821. 

1397. Slot. Footprint. 

1397. Devon, or Devonshire. Find it on the map 
of England. 

1403. What his rights mean, if he has them, brow, 
bay, tray, and points. "His" and "he" refer to the 
stag whose broad slot the hunter finds. "His rights" 
are the stag's antlers, the first tine above the head 
being the "brow" or "brow-antlers," the second the 
"bay," the third the "tray." The antler then 
branches into "points." The stag's antlers increase 
from year to year, and all his rights do not appear 
till the sixth year, when he becomes "warrantable," 
that is, old enough to be hunted. In the seventh 
year he has three or more points. He is then the 
"royal stag," or "great hart." 

1 40 5 . H addon Wood and Countisbury Cliff. These 
places are on the north edge of Devonshire, skirting 
the Bristol Channel and just north of Exmoor Forest. 

1409. Stogged. Stuck fast. 

141 1. Heath-cropper. Heath farmer, that is, one 
born and brought up in a heath country where he 
learns early to ride across the fields and avoid 
mudholes. 



Notes 351 

1466. Whip. The man who whips in, or manages 
the hounds in hunting. 

1468. Leash. A long cord or strap for holding 
a hunting dog. 

1520. Malton. A town in Yorkshire. 

1 52 1. Beeswing. The name of a race horse. 
1557. Lay him on. Start him on the scent. To 

"open" is to bark on finding a scent. 

1574. Parotid region of his fauces. His neck. 

1589. Cocqcigrues. A fanciful word, some of 
Kingsley's jolly nonsense. 

1589. "Man is the measure of all things" is a 
doctrine first stated by the Greek philosopher, Pro- 
tagoras, who lived in the fifth century before Christ. 

1 6 1 1 . Illustrated News. A London paper. 

1 613. Professor Huxley. Thomas Henry Huxley 
(1825-1895) was an English lecturer and writer on 
scientific subjects. 

1624. Sir Isaac Newton. Sir Isaac Newton (1642- 
1727), an English philosopher and mathematician, 
was the discoverer of the law of gravitation. There 
is a tradition that while Newton was at home 
during a college vacation in 1666 he noticed an 
apple fall from a tree, and this led him into a train 
of thought which resulted in the great discovery. 
What do you understand by the "law of gravitation" ? 

1630. Sir Roderick Murchison. Sir Roderick 
Impey Murchison (1 792-1871), a British geologist. 

1 63 1 . Professor Sedgwick. Adam Sedgwick (1785— 
1873), an English geologist and author. 

1632. Mr. Darwin. Charles Robert Darwin 
(1 809-1 882), a famous English naturalist. His two 
great works are The Origin of Species and The Descent 
of Man. He was the first to write scientifically on 
the theory of natural selection, which is, briefly, that 
nature gradually fits a plant or an animal to its sur- 
roundings; those creatures which do not suit their 



352 Notes 

surroundings gradually die off; those which do, live 
(or survive), and their descendants become slowly 
changed to fit more exactly the conditions in which 
they must live. This is what is meant by "the 
survival of the fittest." Darwin explained that, by 
this same law of selection, man has been developed 
from lower forms of life. Much ridicule was heaped 
upon him for his Descent of Man, but now the majority 
of intelligent people accept the theory. 

1632. Professor Faraday. Michael Faraday (17 91- 
1867), an English chemist, discovered magnetic 
electricity. 

1677. M. Du Chaillu. Paul du Chaillu (born in 
1835), a Frenchman, an African explorer, and author. 

1689. Coney. Daman, a queer little creature, 
about a foot long, brownish-gray above, and white 
underneath; each toe has a little hoof. Its home is 
in Syria. See Psalms, civ, 18, a grand and beautiful 
psalm. 

1697. he Vaillant. Francois le Vaillant (1753- 
1824), a French naturalist and explorer who traveled 
in South Africa. 

1699. Cannibal Islands. Cannibal is a^corruption 
of Caribbee. The early Spanish explorers got a 
notion that the Caribbeans were in the habit of 
eating human flesh; so the name of these islanders, 
mispronounced, came to mean a human being who 
eats human flesh. More recently the Cannibal 
Islands have been taken to mean Pacific islands 
inhabited by savages. 

1 7 1 1 . Fossil. Fossilized. 

1 7 12. Pterodactyles . Fossil reptiles like lizards 
with the wings of bats. Some were huge. They fed 
on fish. 

1 761. Adelsberg caverns. Caves in the mountains 
of Austria. The little water lizards found there are 
blind and otherwise imperfect. Have you ever 



Notes 353 

heard of blind fishes in a certain great cave in America ? 

1766. Syllis, Distomas. Sea worms. 

1767. M. Quatrefages. Jean Louis Armand de 
Quatrefages (1810-1892), a French naturalist and 
author. 

1800. Great Exhibition. The first "world's fair" 
was held in the Crystal Palace, London, in 185 1. It 
grew out of a suggestion made by Albert, the Prince- 
Consort (the husband of Queen Victoria), who^ inter- 
ested himself very actively in making the exhibition 
a success. 

1826. Said old David. Psalms, cxxxix, 14. 

1862. Linncean (or Linnean) Society. A British 
botanical society, named after Linne, a great Swedish 
botanist (1707-17 7 8). Linneas, the Latin form of 
the name, is most common. 

1884. Doomsday. Day of the last judgment. 

1885. Botany Bay. In Australia, originally a 
British convict settlement. Criminals were sent 
there to live. 

1930. Grig. Cricket. 

Chapter III 

1938. Amphibious. What kind of an animal is 
this? Name one. Find the real meaning of the 
word; Kingsley's definition is a joke. 

1983. "Our birth is but a sleepy etc. Words- 
worth's ode, Intimations of Immortality, stanza 5. 

2068. Spoon-bonnet. A queer-shaped bonnet, 
fashionable in 1862. 

2069. Reach. A long stretch in a stream without 
a bend or rapids. 

2109. Brick-maker. Look up Rotifera in your 
natural history. 

2133. Howked. Tormented. 

2165. Cats in Struwelpeter. Struwelpeter is a 

<>% 



354 Notes 

German word, meaning bristle-head, or tousle-pat e, 
or silly fellow. It is the name of a comical book in 
German, full of funny pictures and verses. Two 
pages of it tell of a little girl left alone in the house, 
who finds the box of matches. The cats, Minz and 
Maunz, warn her to let them alone, and cry "Meow, 
meo" all the time; she lights a match, and they cry 
"Meow, meo" still worse while she sets her clothes 
on fire, and is burned till nothing is left but a pile 
of ashes and her shoes. They keep on crying "Meow, 
meo," and weep till their tears run like a brook. 

2183. Hover. A retreat or shelter, especially an 
otter's lair. 

2183. Floushed. Splashed. 

2304. Blondin, Leotard. French tight-rope per- 
formers. The former visited America in 1859 and 
walked a rope stretched across the great chasm below 
Niagara Falls. 

2389. Houdin , Robin , Frikell. Famous magicians 
of the last century. Houdin was a Frenchman, 
Robin a Hollander, Frikell a German. Each one of 
them published his autobiography with some account 
of how he performed his tricks. That of Houdin is 
particularly interesting. 

2397. St. Vitus' s dance. A nervous disease which 
causes twitching of the muscles. 

2467. Zoological Gardens. A place where wild 
animals are kept on exhibition. 

2469. Cordery's Moor. Probably an uninclosed 
tract near the Eversley home. 

2470. Withy pollard. A tree which has had its 
top cut off so that it puts out a thick bunch of shoots 
(withes), as a willow. 

2540. Cheshire cat. Where else have you read 
about her? It is said that in the county of Cheshire 
(Chester), England, cheese used to be molded in the 
form of a cat with a grinning mouth. 



Notes 355 

2577. Burn. Sometimes spelled "bourn," or 
* 'bourne." Guess what it means. 

2688. Swirling banks. Banks under which the 
water whirls. 

2693. Strid. A narrow passage between high 
banks. 

2707. Squatter. Splash. 

2758. Cythrawl Sassenach. Cythrawl (or Cyth- 
raul)= Satan. Sassenach = Saxons, that is, the Eng- 
lish. The phrase signifies "English devils." Fan 
Quei is probably quite as uncomplimentary. 

2764. Cymry (or Kymry) = Welsh. The name by 
which the Welsh people call themselves. 

2768. Winchester. A city of Hampshire County, 
England. 

2772. Salisbury. The capital of Wiltshire, Eng- 
land. There is a great cathedral there, whose spire 
is referred to. The River Avon flows through Salis- 
bury and on south, through a portion of Hampshire, 
entering the British Channel at Christchurch. (This 
is not the River Avon of Stratford.) The writer 
means by this passage that if the salmon were 
properly protected by the government they would 
not all be fished out before they had a chance to 
ascend as far as Salisbury. 

2781. Arthur Clough. Arthur Hugh Clough(i8i9~ 
1861), an English poet. 

2792. Spate. Overflow, freshet. 

2794. Up the cataract. The salmon ascend the 
rivers, leaping the cataracts. 

2810. Gilly. The field servant of a sportsman. 

2823. Bewick. Thomas Bewick (17 53-1828) was 
an English wood engraver. His History of British 
Birds, its pictures engraved by himself and the reading 
matter supplied by another, was for seventy years 
or more the most important popular work on orni- 
thology in England. All sportsmen and lovers of 



356 Notes 

nature in the country were acquainted with it. 

2841. "II sait son Rabelais." "He knows his 
Rabelais." Francois Rabelais was a famous French 
humorist (1483-1553). 

2968. Alcibiades. A famous Athenian general, 
who lived over 400 years before Christ. 

2979. Grown ugly, etc. Do you remember the 
"doctrine of this wonderful fairy tale" ? (P. 95.) 

2992. Hidalgo, A nobleman of Spain. 

Chapter IV 

3055. Muckle. Large. 

3160. Hawsers. What is a hawser? and a buoy? 

3300. To the Chesapeake. What "pleasant warm 
water" had the strange fish followed? Take your 
map and trace his journey. 

3319. French-polish. Polish with liquid shoe 
dressing. 

3370. Merman. The poem, "The Forsaken Mer- 
man," by Matthew Arnold, the English poet and 
essayist (182 2-1 888), is weird and musical. Children 
find it interesting. 

'3384. Victoria Cross. A bronze Maltese cross 
given by the British sovereign to brave soldiers or 
sailors. Established by Queen Victoria in 1856. It 
has the motto, "For Valour." See Mrs. Ewing's 
The Story of a Short Life. 

3416. Present, fire, snap! How do you pronounce 
the first word ? 

3491. Applications of iodine. Seabathing. There 
is iodine in sea salt. 

3507. Aquariums. How do they resemble a cage ? 

3508. Pompeii. A city at the base of Mt. Vesu- 
vius, destroyed and buried by an eruption, 79 a.d. 
Much of it has been uncovered during the Hast cen- 
tury, and gives us a very good opportunity to see 



Notes 357 

just how the Romans lived nearly two thousand years 
ago. 

3521. Ptthmllnsprts. Pronounce, Put-t hem-all-in- 
spirits. Naturalists put specimens of small animals 
into alcohol to preserve them. 

3524. Curasao. One of the Dutch West Indies. 

3526. Petropaulowski (Petropaulovsk). A town 
in Siberia. So the professor's father had been 
exiled from Russia for political reasons. 

3559. Cockyolybirds. Any small birds. 

3591. Galatea. A sea nymph. There is a famous 
painting in the Farnese Gallery in Rome entitled 
"The Triumph of Galatea," by Raphael. It is a 
fresco; that is, painted on the plaster of the wall. 
The figures are life size. Ellie's description would 
answer for it except that there is no volcano, and 
the cupids are in the air instead of in the water. 

3591. Burning mountain. Probably Etna, a vol- 
cano in Sicily. 

3599. B alias. A tribe of savages. 

3609. Hippopotamus majors. There is a little 
lump in a certain part of the human brain which is 
called the "hippocampus major." To make a dis- 
cussion of the sort he is telling of appear ridiculous, 
Kingsley blunders over the name. 

3637. Lord Dundreary. A character in Taylor's 
play, Our American Cousin. He is a good-natured, 
empty-headed fellow. 

3650. Nymphs, satyrs, etc. These are all super- 
natural beings, created by the fancy of different 
races. Nymphs, satyrs, and fauns are found in the 
Greek mythology; leprechaunes, cluricaunes, and 
banshees in the Irish; rutins in the French; magots 
in the Japanese; afrits, marids, and jinns in the 
Arabian; peris in the Persian; deevs in the Hindu. 
The others are English or German. 

3661. Sadducee, Pharisee. Two sects of the Jews 



358 Notes 

frequently referred to in the New Testament. The 
Sadducees did not believe in spirits or angels. The 
Pharisees were very self-righteous; they laid great 
stress on exact obedience to every detail of the law 
of Moses. 

3677. Succinct compendium. A short summing 
up. 

3713. Holothurian, Synapta, Cephalopod. Names 
of small sea animals. 

3745. Maxima debetur, etc. Quoted from Juvenal, 
a Latin poet, who lived in the first century a.d. In 
the correct form it is puero (to a child), not pueris. 

3844. Bumps, nativity, lunars. In old times the 
astrologers used to tell a person's fortune by examin- 
ing the heavens; for the sun, moon, and stars were 
thought to influence the characters and lives of 
human beings. For instance, Autolycus, in Shak- 
spere's play, The Winter's Tale, excuses himself for 
being a thief by saying that he was born "under 
Mercury." To "cast the nativity" of a person means 
to reckon what must have been the position of the 
stars at the time of his birth. To "take his lunars" 
means to calculate the moon's influence on him. 
In modern times there have been many who believed 
that character could be told by the position and size 
of the bumps of the skull. 

3867. Unicorn, etc. A list of fabulous animals. 
Unicorn, an imaginary animal with the body of a 
horse, and having a straight horn sticking out of 
his forehead; fire-drake, a fiery dragon; mantibora 
(or manticore), imagined as having a human head, 
a lion's body, and a scorpion's tail; basilisk, sl winged 
serpent whose breath or glance brought death; 
amphisbcena, a serpent having a head at each end 
of the body; griffin, half lion, half eagle; phoenix 
a bird like an eagle, with red and gold plumage 
(once in 500 years it burned itself on the altar and 



Notes 35Q 

rose from the ashes young and beautiful); roc, an 
enormous bird of prey described in the Arabian 
Nights; ore, a dragon; Geryon, a giant. 

3916. Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Minister 
of Finance in the British Cabinet. 

3931. Peth-winds. Path-winds, that is, very swift 
winds. The two words which form this compound 
word are from different languages, Anglo-Saxon and 
Gothic. 

r 3935- Schedule D. The things or property that 
may be taxed are usually arranged, according to 
kinds, in lists called schedules. Kingsley pictures 
the chancellor as being in favor of this new law about 
taxing long words because it made it possible to get 
rid of a troublesome schedule. Then he goes on to 
poke fun at the Irish members of Parliament for 
always opposing everything. 

3950. Hippocrates. A Greek physician who lived 
in the fourth century B.C. He is called the "Father 
of Medicine." 

3950. Feuchtersleben. A modern German physi- 
cian and author. 

No attempt will be made to interpret the avalanche 
of nonsense which completes the chapter. 

Chapter V 

4213. Lobster-pot. Did you ever see one ? 

4236. Polonius. An old courtier in Shakspere's 
Hamlet. 

4283. Bull. A comic blunder in speech. The 
Irish are said to be more apt than others to make 
such mistakes. Kingsley here applies the word to 
an act. 

4310. Valetta. The fortress and capital of the 
island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. Nix 
Mangiare stairs. The second word is the Italian 



j6o Notes 

verb meaning "to eat." The phrase is probably- 
intended to mean Nothing-to-eat Stairs, that is, 
stairs where beggars loaf. Valetta is an up-and- 
down-hill city, with innumerable stairs. Often a 
street is built of wide stone steps. 

4319. Mewstone. A rock near shore frequented 
by gulls. 

4347. Treacle. The sirup which drains off in 
making white sugar. 

4375. Barbican. An opening in the wall of a 
fortress; here a water gate. 

4483. St. Brandan. A half mythical priest of 
early Christian days in Ireland. 

4486. Kerry. In what part of Ireland? 

4486. Hermits. How do they live? 

4490. Potheen (or poteen) . Illegally made whisky. 

4491., Shillelagh (or shillalah). A stout cudgel, a 
club. 

4499. Blasquets. A group of islands in the 
Atlantic west of Kerry (spelled also Blaskets). 

4505. Hooker. A clumsy fishing boat. 

4541. Plato. A Greek philosopher who died 350 
years before Christ. In his book, Timceus, Plato 
gives the legend of Atlantis, a fabled island to the 
west of the Straits of Gibraltar, whose warriors 
threatened the great nations of the Mediterranean. 
They were repulsed by the Athenians, and afterwards 
the island sank and was lost in the great ocean which 
is named for it. 

4550. Connemara. The western part of Galway, 
Ireland. 

4551. Turk waterfall. Falls in a small stream 
near Eversley. 

4556. Basalt. A kind of rock. 

4557. Staff a. One of the Hebrides, where Fin- 
gal's cave is. 

4558. Kynance. A cove in the southwest coast 



Notes 361 

of Cornwall, England, where the beautiful serpentine 
rock is found. 

4561. Ca'pri. An island south of the Bay of 
Naples. The scenery of this little island is of rare 
beauty. The shores are high, rocky cliffs in which 
there are several caves, the most famous being the 
Blue Grotto. The entrance is but three feet high in 
calm weather, and just the width of a rowboat. 
Each wave closes the entrance. Inside there is a 
wonderful blue light. The water looks like liquid 
silver, and the drops from the oars are like soft-hued 
pearls. 

4561. Adelsberg. An Austrian town near which 
is a stalactite grotto. 

4580. Fourier. A French socialist writer (1772- 
1837). Some of his ideas were so peculiar as to 
make people think he was a little insane. 

4590. Nereids. Sea nymphs. Look up Nereidae 
and Naididae in your natural history. 

4593. Amphitrite. The wife of Neptune, god of 
the sea. 

4616. Yataghan, a Turkish sword; crees (o-r 
crease), a Malayan dagger; ghoorka sword, a sword 
from Nepaul, India; tuck, a narrow rapier; gisarine 
(also spelled gisarme, guisarme, geserne, etc.), 
a spear or poleax. 

4687. Sea-bullseyes . A bullseye is a thick, round 
lump of peppermint candy ; toffee, taffy ; ices, ice cream. 

4696. Nice. Find it on the French coast of the 
Mediterranean Sea. The earlier form of the name 
was Nicaea, from Nike, the Greek goddess of Victory. 
The town was at the start a Greek colony. 

4698. Frutta di mare (Italian) = fruits of the sea; 
fruits de mer (French) = fruits of the sea. 

4701. Potentate. A reference to Louis Napo- 
leon (Napoleon III) of France. He was a nephew 
of the great Napoleon Bonaparte, and was emperor 



362 , Notes 

of the French for about twenty years. In i860 he 
took possession of Nice and the territory around 
it, which had been part of the kingdom of Sardinia. 
This change is what is meant by the phrase "seem- 
ingly desirous of inheriting the blessing pronounced 
on those who remove their neighbor's landmarks." 
For this blessing(?), see Deuteronomy, xxvii, 17. 

4872. Pope Gregory (540-604). There have been 
sixteen popes of this name. The one referred to here 
was the first, and became Saint Gregory after his 
death. He was a man of much ability and very 
active in many ways. He arranged the music to be 
sung in the Roman Catholic churches; the Gregorian 
chants are in use to the present day. He trained the 
choristers, which Kingsley here refers to; though 
we are not sure that he used a lash in teaching, it 
certainly was customary. There is a famous story 
about him. One day in the market at Rome he saw 
some very beautiful captives exposed for sale into 
slavery, and asked who they were. "Angli," was the 
reply (meaning "English"). "Non Angli, sed Angeli 
(Not Angles, but angels)," said the Pope. 

4896. Imposition. A task set for a student as a 
punishment. 

4927. Butties. Foremen of mining gangs. 

4929. Nailers. Foremen in a nail factory. 

4986. Pussy. Another spelling for pursy (fat). 

Chapter VI 

5 1 2 1 . America. Who were the ' 'naughty people ' ' 
in America in 1862 when this was written? 

5122. People in the Bible. Deuteronomy , xxxii ,15. 
5126. Lollipops. A kind of taffy, or, in the 

plural, sweets of any kind. 

5205. Ishmael. Genesis, xvi, 12. 

5226. Inquisitors. Members of the Inquisition. 



Notes 363 

This was a court or council appointed by the pope 
for the purpose of examining persons accused of 
heresy, that is, of holding religious beliefs different 
from those of the church. The victim was first cast 
into prison. Then, perhaps after a long delay, he 
was brought before the Inquisition and ordered to 
confess. If he refused he was handed over to be 
tortured, sometimes repeatedly and with increasing 
cruelty. The details of these tortures are too sicken- 
ing to repeat here. Then the prisoner was brought 
before the council again; and now for the first time 
he heard the charges against him, and was allowed 
to say something for himself. The trial almost always 
went against the accused and he was sentenced to 
hopeless imprisonment, or exile, or frequently to be 
burned at the stake. His property was confiscated 
and his family reduced to poverty. Torquemada, 
the first Inquisitor-General in Spain, between the 
years 1480 and 1498 condemned 98,800 persons. 
The Inquisition was established by Pope Gregory IX 
in 1229 and was not entirely suppressed until 1834. 

5226. Kings of Naples. A reference, probably, 
to Francis II of Naples, whose kingdom consisted of 
the lower part of Italy. He abused his prisoners of 
state most shamefully. When the Italian patriot, 
Garibaldi, led the revolution of i860, Francis II was 
deposed and Victor Emanuel became king of the 
whole of Italy. 

5228. "We have trained up the child" etc. See 
Proverbs, xxii, 6. 

5353. Test out of Overton Pool. Probably the 
spray at the foot of a small waterfall. "Test" in 
some parts of England means "mist." 

5397. Penny postmen. Letter carriers. 

5537. Spiritual causes , etc. See note on thumping 
on the table (p. 355). 

5541. Odds. To fit, to make even. 



364 Notes 

5558. Make his own bed, etc. What do we call 
expressions like these, which grow up from what 
everybody thinks and says? 

5612. Flapdoodle. The food on which fools are 
said to be nourished. 

5614. Peter Simple. A novel by Captain Frederick 
Marry at, who has never been surpassed as a writer 
of stirring sea stories. His best are Mr. Midshipman 
Easy, Peter Simple, Japhet in Search of a Father, and 
Jacob Faithful. All are of intense interest to boys. 

5621. Tufa. A kind of limestone. 

5649. Necessity is the mother of . Can 

you supply the last word? 

5836. Selection. See notes on Huxley, Darwin, 
etc. (pp. 357 and 358). 

Chapter VII 

5866. Mother Carey. Perhaps originally Mater 
Cara (Latin for * 'Mother dear"). The stormy 
petrels are called Mother Carey's chickens, and are 
dear to the sailors, as they warn them of an approach- 
ing storm. When it snows, "Mother Carey is pluck- 
ing her goose." 

5966. G air fowl (or garefowl). The great awk, 
only recently extinct. 

5974. Bedizened. Gaudily dressed. 

6072. Skerry. Rock or reef. 

6075. The land rocked, etc. What was taking 
place under the sea? 

6093. Noblesse oblige (French). "Noble birth 
imposes obligations," which means that any one who 
comes of a fine family is under obligation to be good 
and noble in character. 

6106. Deceased sister's husband. This has refer- 
ence to an English law which forbade a widower to 
marry the sister of his deceased wife. 



Notes 365 

6192. Victualled. Means what? 

6194. Hakluyt. An English historian(i553-i6i6). 
His Voyages and Discoveries is curious reading. 

6197. The old order changeth, etc. This is the 
beginning of King Arthur's last speech in " The 
Passing of Arthur," Tennyson's Idyls of the King. 

6217. Hoodie-crows. Hooded crows (Scotch). 

6234. Hokany-baro. Probably a game or a dance. 

6257. Scaul. Scold. 

6303. Ness. Allfowlness. 

6308. In season. The game laws protect birds 
from being shot except at a certain season of the 
year. 

6326. Jan Mayen's Land. A volcanic island 
between Iceland and Spitzenbergen. 

6339. Great-coat. What name do Americans pre- 
fer for this garment? 

6340. Copper boiler, in the Gulf of Mexico. Ex- 
plain this. 

6377. Weather side. Which is it? 

6401. Molly-mock (mock =mow, a grimace). The 
albatross. 

6438. Right whales and horse-whales. The right 
whale yields whalebone and whale oil. Horse-whale 
is an old name for the walrus, a word which comes to 
us from Old Swedish (hval= whale; ross = horse). 

6466. Explain the "ice giants" and "the white 
gate" (1. 6477). 

6568. Peacepool. Some people believe that at the 
North Pole there is an open sea, free from ice and 
storms. Explain "the sun . . . walked round out- 
side," and "an exhibition of fireworks." 

6588. Julius Ccesar. The greatest Roman: great 
as a soldier, as a statesman, and as an historian. 
He was assassinated by political enemies in the senate 
house of Rome, 44 B.C. At first he attempted to 
defend himself; but when he saw one whom he had 



j66 Notes 

loved among the murderers, he folded his arms and 
resisted no more. See Shakspere's Julius C&sar, 
Act III, sc. ii, 11. 188-193. 

6595. Bourne. Limits, boundaries. 

the dread of something after death, 
The undiscovered country from whose bourne 
No traveller returns, puzzles the will 
And makes us rather bear those ills we have 
Than fly to others that we know not of. 

Shakspere's Hamlet, Act III, sc. i, 11. 78-82. 

6706. Prometheus. According to the Greek myth 
Prometheus stole fire from heaven to give to men. 
The use of fire is the first great step in civiliza- 
tion. Prometheus means forethought; Epimetheus, 
afterthought. 

6721. Ptinum Furem, etc. Nonsense. 

6771. Lucifers. Matches. The gift of fire which 
Prometheus brought. 

6775. Thames on -fire. Englishmen say of some 
one who is trying to do something too great for his 
talents, "He'll never set the Thames on fire." 

6778. A vulture by him. The old Greek poets 
represented Prometheus as the benefactor of mankind. 
Jupiter was angry with him for having brought so 
many gifts from heaven to aid the human race, and 
therefore punished him by chaining him to a great 
rock on Mount Caucasus, with a vulture forever 
feeding on his liver. 

6822. Projectors , schemers ; prestigitators , j uggler s , 
cheats. 

6824. Mother Shipton. An Englishwoman of the 
time of Henry VIII (1509-1547), who was famous for 
her prophecies. One of them, in regard to events far 
in the future, ended with the lines: 

"The world unto an end shall come 
In eighteen hundred and eighty-one." 



Notes j6? 

6825. Merlin, often called the Prince of Enchant- 
ers, is a character in British legends of the sixth 
century. He comes into Tennyson's Idyls 0} the 
King, Spenser's Faerie Queen, and many of the old 
English ballads. 

6825. Thomas the Rhymer. An early Scotch poet, 
prophet, and magician; Sir Walter Scott calls him 
"the Merlin of Scotland." His time is given as the 
latter part of the thirteenth century. 

6826. Gerbertus. Pope (Silvester II) four years, 
999-1003, at a time when civilization seemed likely 
to be lost in ignorance and superstition. He was 
suspected of being a magician on account of his 
great learning. 

6826. Rabanus Maurus. German churchman, 
archbishop of Mainz in the ninth century. 

6826. Nostradamus. French astrologer (1503- 
1566), who published an annual book of prophecies. 

6827. Zadkiel. Pen name of a certain Lieutenant 
Morrison, author of The Prophetic Almanac. 

6827. Raphael. Pen name of an English writer 
on astrology early in the nineteenth century. 

6827. Moore. Francis Moore, another almanac 
author like the three preceding. 

6827. Old Nixon. An "old brutal desperado," 
is a character in Scott's novel, Redgauntlet. He 
was a traitor to the family which he served. 

6835. Cambridge. Great university in England. 

6836. Senior Wrangler. The student who takes 
the highest honors in mathematics in the university. 

Chapter VIII 

6861. World-pap. Pap is soft, doughy material. 

6925. Madreporiform tubercle. Coral-like bony 
lump. 

6962. Baron Munchausen. The hero of a story of 



368 Notes 

travels and wonderful adventures. In one, for 
instance, the baron encounters a great snowstorm 
and ties his horse to a church steeple which looks 
like a post. Over night the snow melts and the horse 
is seen dangling by the halter from the church spire. 
The story was written by a German named Raspe 
(1737-17 94) to ridicule the baron, who was a real 
person, a cavalry officer fond of telling extravagant 
stories about himself. 

6964. Ballisodare (or Bally). An Irish village. 

6980. Tuck. Sweetmeats, candies. 

6982. Everton. The town near which Kingsley 
lived. 

6985. Sloes. Berries of the blackthorn; whin- 
berries, similar to our huckleberries; hips, rose 
berries; haws, berries of the hawthorn. 

6995. Wakes. A wake is a watch over a dead 
body from the time of death till burial. Among the 
Irish peasantry it is a great occasion, when there is 
much eating and drinking. 

7009. Squeeky, etc. Names made up to ridicule 
the popular books of the time when The Water- 
Babies was written; as for instance, Queechy, The 
Lamplighter, and The Wide, Wide World. 

7023. The hub. Boston, Massachusetts, is often 
called "the Hub" or "the Hub of the Universe," 
from a sentence in Dr. Holmes' Autocrat of the 
Breakfast Table: "Boston State-house is the hub of 
the solar system." For the United States it has 
always been the intellectual center. There is no 
doubt Kingsley here means to poke fun at Boston's 
pretensions. The latitude of Boston is 42°2i'72* 
north; its longitude 7i°3'3o" west from Greenwich. 
Subtract the latter from 180 (or half the circle) and 
you have io8°56'. The original settlers of Boston 
came from the English Boston in Lincolnshire in 1630. 

7040. Have his carcase. This is an old joke, 



Notes j6q 

referring to the Habeas Corpus Act. This Act pro- 
vides that any one who is imprisoned can insist on 
being brought before a judge and having his accuser 
state why he is detained. This is to prevent imprison- 
ment on suspicion. At times of great public excite- 
ment and danger it has sometimes been necessary to 
suspend the Act, as during the Civil War, when 
President Lincoln suspended it in order to arrest 
traitors in the North. 

7056. Polupragmosyne. A Greek word which 
means "meddling a good deal with other people's 
affairs." 

7064. Ex officio. Because of his office, or posi- 
tion. 

7065. "Parliament of Man, and the Federation of 
the World." Quoted from Tennyson's Locksley Hall, 
I.128. 

7078. Pantheon. A temple commemorating great 
men. Originally, a temple dedicated to all gods 
(Greek). There are two famous temples of this 
name: the Pantheon at Rome, now a Christian 
church, and the Pantheon at Paris. 

7079. Tower of Babel. See Genesis, xi, 1-9. 

7080. Trafalgar Fountains. Two fountains in 
Trafalgar Square in London. This square is named in 
honor of Lord Nelson, England's greatest admiral, 
who in 1805 won a famous victory over the combined 
French and Spanish fleets off the coast of Portugal, 
Cape Trafalgar. It was when this battle was about 
to begin that Nelson commanded the following signal 
to be given: "England expects every man to d© his 
duty." The admiral himself received a fatal wound 
in the battle, and was forever enshrined in the hearts 
of Englishmen. 

7088. Orthopedy. The correction of deformities. 
7090. Aesthetics. The science of beauty and taste. 
7094. Papist. Roman Catholic. 



j yo Notes • <. 

7094. Penny-a-liners. Those who do cheap writ- 
ing for the papers. 

7103. Victrix causa, etc. "The victorious cause 
was pleasing to the gods, but the vanquished to 
maidens" ("to Cato," in the original). From the 
Roman poet, Lucan (39-65 a.d.). 

7129. Gastrocnemius muscle. In what part of the 
body? Read on. 

7149. Mokes. Donkeys. 

7 151. Lucius. A character in an old story by 
Apuleius, the Latin writer. In this story, The Golden 
Ass, Lucius is turned into an ass and has many 
adventures before he recovers his human form again. 

7184. Fugleman. Leader of soldiers in military 
exercise. 

7236. Pick his brains. Learn all he could by 
questioning. 

7241. Dominie Sampson. A poor schoolmaster 
in Scott's novel, Guy Mannering. He quoted Latin 
frequently and always expressed astonishment by 
exclaiming, "Prodigious!" 

7266. A malignant and a turbaned Turk. Quoted 
from Shakspere's Othello, Act V, sc. ii, 1. 353. 

7274. Mr. Joseph Ady. An eminent English 
physician. It is customary in England to call a 
physician "Mister." 

731 1. Oniscus. A wood louse. 

7312. Podurellce. Plural of Podurella, a spring-tail. 
7312. M. le Roi des Papillons. Mr. the King of 

the Butterflies, that is, some scientist who knows all 
about insects. 

7315. Glacial Drift. The soil, stones, etc., that 
have been dragged along by a glacier and finally 
deposited. The limit of the European glaciers is 
across the middle of Europe, from east to west, 
roughly speaking. 

7328. Buddhist temples. Temples devoted to the 



Notes 371 

religion founded by Buddha, which prevails in cen- 
tral and southern Asia. The Thibetans are Bud- 
dhists. 

7350. Shakespeare says. The quotation is from 
A Midsummer -night 's Dream, Act III, sc. ii, 1. 461. 

7357. Laputa. A flying island described in Gul- 
liver's Travels. 

7379. Mangold wurzel. Mangel wurzel, a kind of 
beet. 

7388. a Lyres and Camelopardis ( = Camelopar- 
dalis). Constellations. Lyra has fifty stars, Cam- 
elopardalis eighty-three. The Greek letters, here 
alpha (<*) and beta (/?), are used in their regular 
order to indicate the size or brilliancy of the stars. 

7392. Mutius Sccevola. A legendary Roman hero 
who, when threatened with torture, held his hand in 
the fire to show his contempt of suffering. 

7403. Graidiocolosyrtus , etc. Nonsense. 

7407. Tide-waiter. A revenue officer. 

7463. Roger Ascham. An English scholar and 
author of the sixteenth century. His chief work is 
The Schoolmaster. 

7495. Sapping and moping. Studying and taking 
in. 

7528. Alder shot. A town in the northeast corner 
of Hampshire, England, near Eversley, where there 
is a permanent military camp and barracks. 

7547. John Bunyan (1628-1688). An English- 
man, author of Pilgrim's Progress. 

7565. Fettle. To beat. 

7573. Powwow man. An American Indian con- 
jurer or medicine man. 

7595. Corrobory (or Corroboree). A war dance 
of native Australians (black fellows). 

7599. Sallaballa. A fantastic word, Kingsley's fun. 

7612. Sinbad. Sinbad the Sailor, a character in 
The Arabian Night's Entertainment. He is a traveling 



372 Notes 

merchant who relates tales of his many wonderful 
adventures. 

7665. Chantilly. A small French town, twenty- 
five miles north of Paris. A beautiful kind of lace 
is made there. 

7666. Crystal Palace. See note on Great Exhi- 
bition (p. 359). 

7696. Policemen's truncheons. Give another name 
for them. 

7699. Naviculce. Plural of navicula, a tiny sea 
plant. 

7714. Stable equilibrium. Balance. 

7740. Blunderbuss. An old-fashioned gun. 

7774. Radical humours. The ancient and medie- 
val physiologists imagined the body to be made of 
four humors (fluids or semifluids), called the radical 
humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. 

7776. Lemnius. Simon Lemnius (15 10-15 50), a 
Swiss author, and educator. 

7776. Cardan. Jerome Cardan (1501-1576), an 
Italian physician. 

7776. Van Helmont. Jan Baptista Van Helmont 
(1 578-1644), a Flemish chemist and physiologist. 
He invented the word "gas," taking it from the 
German word "Gheist" (spirit, ghost). 

7792. Punch. Of the Punch and Judy show. 

7800. Atomy. A tiny thing, an atom. 

7966. Etna. What and where? 

8004. Beatify, make happy; translate, exalt to 
heaven; apotheotise (apotheosize), to place among 
the gods. 

8006. Backstairs, etc. This means that all sorts 
of people would be glad to find some way of sneaking 
out of difficulties that they have got into by their 
faults, instead of being brave enough to admit they 
have done wrong and take the consequences. 

8068. Eye single. A pure and noble way of 



Notes 



373 



looking at things. Look up Matthew, vi, 22 and 23, 
and Psalms, xxix, 4. 

8164. Vivariums. Parks or ponds for animals or 
water creatures. 

8204. "Sae sair hadden dottn (Scotch). "So 
sorely held down," that is, abused. 

8206. Bishop Butler. A noted English divine 
(1692-1752), author of Analogy of Religion. 





Principal Books of Charles Kingsley 

Books for Children: 

Glaucus; or the Wonders of the Shore. 

The Heroes; or Greek Fairy Tales for my Children. 

The Water-Babies; a Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby. 

Madame How and Lady Why; or First Lessons in 
Earth Lore. 

The first and last of these books present some of the 
curious and wonderful facts of nature in an entertain- 
ing way. In The Heroes Kingsley has put into a 
delightful form several of the old Greek myths. 

Books for Adults: 

Alton Locke; Tailor and Poet. 

Yeast; a Problem. 

Hypatia; or New Foes with an Old Face. 

Westward Ho! 

Two Years Ago. 

Hereward the Wake. 

The Roman and the Teuton. 

Poems. 

Of the above all are novels except the Poems and 
The Roman and the Teuton; the latter is a series of 
lectures delivered at Cambridge, the opening one 
giving the title to the volume. This is a splendid 
essay on a romantic and picturesque period of 
history. 

Yeast, Alton Locke, and Two Years Ago are novels 
written to illustrate the problems of laboring men and 
their employers. Westward Ho! is a romance of 

[374] 



A Reading List 375 

adventure in the New World, dated in Queen Eliza- 
beth's reign. Hereward the Wake (or Hereward, the 
Last of the English, which is another title sometimes 
used), while a little slow of interest at the start, is a 
fine picture of life in England at the time of the 
Norman conquest. Hypatia is an absorbing story of 
early Christian history in Alexandria, but is not 
likely to interest young children. In Westward Ho! 
and Hereward, however, boys who are fond of stories 
of adventure will find much to enjoy. 

Kingsley's best poetry is contained in a few of his 
shorter poems. His "The Three Fishers," "The Sands 
o' Dee," and "Clear and Cool" are excellent examples 
of this type. 




FT! 




rffs 



A PRONOUNCING 
VOCABULARY 



'«) 



A'delsberg (g=k) 
A'djr 

afrit (i«e) 
A'gra 

Al'ci bi'tf des (s — z) 
Al'der mire 
Am'phis bce'na (oe = 
Am'phi tri'te 
a nas't6 mos ing (s = z) 
As'cham (ch=k) 
At lan'tis 
Bal'li so dare' 
Bal't«s (plural) 
bd salt' (salt =solt) 
bas'i lisk (bas =baz) 
Bew'ick (bew=bu) 
Bias quets 
*Blon din' (bloN da**') 
Bee 6'tian (oe = e; tian = shan) 
B6U'a*d 
both'ie (ie=i) 
Bud'dhist (u = 6t>) 
buird'ly (uir = iir) 
Cam'bridge (kam'brij) 
ca mel'6 par'dal is 
Ca'pri (i = e) 
Car'dan 



Car lisle' (s silent) 
Cat'd; combs 

ceiph'd 16 pod (ceph =sef) 
*Chan til ly' (shan te ye') 
cha/ri va'ri (ch = sh ; i = £) 
Chesh'ire 
CheViot (o=u) 
Cin'que-cen'to 

(cheN'kwa-chen'to) 
Clive (kliv) 
Clough (kluf) 
Clu'ricawne (u = 6o; 

cawne=kon) 
cock'y ol'y (k6k'i-ol'i) 
Cocq'ci grues (cq =k) 
Con'ne" mar'a 
Cor'der y (kor'der i) 
cor rob'o ry (ko rob'6 re') 
Count is bur $' 
Cu ra cao' (koo ra so') 
Cym'ry (kim'ri) 
Cyth'rawl (cyth=kith) 
Dev'on (o = u) 
Dis't6 md 
Dor'ic 
fDu Chail lu' (dii sha yii') 
El e phan'ta 

*The French nasal sound which is used in these words cannot be repre- 
sented by letters. It is as though one started to sound ng but stopped 
before the utterance. 

fThis pronunciation is only approximate. The sounds should be given 
in class by some one who speaks French. 

{376} 



A Pronouncing Vocabulary 



377 



Ept me'theus (eu = u) 
Er'6 bus 
Et'na 

E'ton (o = ii) 
Eu'nice (u'nfe) 
Ex cheq'uer (Sks chSk'er) 
FSr'a day 
fSl'ISt 

fFou ri er'(fod r6 a') 
Frfk'ell 
Gal'tf te'# 
GaPway (gal=gdl) 
gas'troc ne'm! us (c =k) 
Ger ber'tus (g hard) 
Ge ry on (je'ri 6n) 
Ghoor'ka (goor) 

gil'iy (jii'i) 

gi sar'fae (g soft) 
grade'ly 

Grai'd* 6 co'lo s^r'tus) 
Greg'6 rf 
Gull* ver 
H&k'luyt (ld6t) 
hi dal'go 
hSk'a nf bar'o 
hSl'd thu'ri an 
*Hou din' (hoo daN') 
hy'drd tec'non 
In'gle bor ough 
(iN'g'l bur'*) 
Ish'ma SI 
Jan Ma'yen (j =y) 
Ky'nance 



La pu'ta 

LSrn'n* us 
fLe o tard'(d silent) 

lep'rg chaun' (K6n) 

Lewth'waite (ew = 6"o) 
fLe" vai llant' (va yaN') 

Lm nas'an (ae = e) 

lu'ten 

Ly'rae (li're) 

Ma gee' (g hard) 

mag'St 

Mal'ton (a = 6; o=u) 

Man gi a 're (gee ah 'ray) 

man'ti co'rd 

mar'id 

Mun chau'sen (au = 6 ; s =z) 

Mur'chison (o=»u) 

Mu ti us Saev'6 Id (ti =she; '> 
saev=sev) 

Na'both 

nd:vfc'ulae (c=k;ae = &) 

Ne'rS id 

Nice (nes) 

NSs'tra da'mws 

O nis'ctts (c =k) 

6r'th6 pe df 

PalkCSlljfas (alk=6k) 
f(des) Pa pi lions' (i =e; yoN') 

Par'the" n6n 

Peish'ta more (ei=e) 

Pe tr6 pau low' ski (pe = py&; 
w=v;i = e) 

Phce'nix (fg'niks) 



*The French nasal sound which is used in these words cannot be repre- 
sented by letters. It is as though one started to sound ng but stopped 
before the utterance. 

fThis pronunciation is only approximate. The sounds should be given 
in class by some one who speaks French. 



378 



A Pronouncing Vocabulary 



Phyl lod'o ce (fflod'd-se) 

Pla'td 

P6durel'lae (aj=e) 

P6 16'nS us 

P61 u prag rno's^- n€ 

pttl'y an'thws 

Pom pe'ii (pa/ye) 

p6 theen' (then) 

Pr6 me'theus (eu =u) 

Pro'teus (eu = u) 

Psa man 'the (ps =s) 

Pter 6 dac't$r les (pt = t) 
fQuatre fages' (katr fazh') 

Ra ba'nus Mau'rus 

(nus=nd"6s; au=ou) 
fRabelais'Crab'lS') 

Ra'pha el (raf a £1) 
JSome one who speaks German 



Salis'bur y (solz'ber i) 
Sal'la-balla 
JSas'se nach (ch =k) 
Scar'bor ough (sc =sk) (bur 6) 
shil le'lagh (le = la ; lagh = la) 
strd mash' 

Stru'wel pe'ter (pe=pa) 
Sjfllfe 
S? nap'ta 
Tab en n?fi cus 
TSj md h&l' 
Traf al gar' 
trea'cle (tre'k'l) 
tu'fd (u = 6o) 
Va leVta 
yat'a ghan (gan) 
Zad'k? el 
may be asked to illustrate this sound. 





SUGGESTIONS 
l b TEACHE RS 



CHARLES KINGSLEY.one of the most remark- 
able men of his day, deserved for many 
reasons the fame that accompanies greatness, 
yet at the same time he was so gently modest, so per- 
sistently industrious, and so full of self-sacrifice and 
love for all living creatures that the personal power 
and influence of the man seemed almost to eclipse 
his shining talents. It is the man himself that gleams 
through all his work; and the personal element, so 
valuable to children, is strikingly dominant in The 
Water-Babies. 

Bearing this in mind, the teacher should attempt 
something of an analysis of Tom's character as it is 
developed in the course of the story. The opening 
chapters picture vividly in him the ruling traits of 
the Anglo-Saxon: independence, courage in the face 
of danger, unconquerable energy such as yields only 
with the body's breath, and a sense of justice, which, 
blind and feeble as it shows itself in its lower forms, 
yet is capable of a glorious expansion. It will be 
noted that at the beginning the gentler, tenderer 
phases of character are only hinted at in Tom's 
longing "to get over a gate and pick buttercups," 
his liking for the Irishwoman, his sad wonder at the 
picture of Christ, his astonishment and awe at the 
beauty and purity of little Ellie, and his first shame 
at his own dirt and misery. These early stirrings of 
the esthetic and moral natures in himself — closely 
linked in this little savage as they are in every child — 



[ 379 ] 



j8o Suggestions to Teachers 

are by no means so real to his perceptions as the 
robuster virtues of courage and determination, whose 
power and value in his own life he has already come 
to recognize. Yet it is to the development of these 
tender little filaments of beauty and love that the 
story now turns. 

Tom continues to use his sturdy English virtues. 
But they are not the end; they are rather the means, 
the tools with which he carves out an ideal at first 
but dimly perceived and in no wise comprehended. 
Not every young reader will see at once why it is that 
Tom so suddenly finds the longed-for water-babies 
that have been around him all the time. But some 
one or two of every ten will know that his own kind 
act was the only thing that could and did open his 
eyes and give him what he most desired, and what 
was, indeed, waiting to be his as soon as he should take 
the right step. It is the great lesson of altruism made 
so simple that any child may read it and gradually 
come to understand it. 

From this point on we have the same lesson over 
and over again — the doing a hard thing because it is 
the only right thing to do ; the lesson of obedience to 
duty, no matter how stern and ill-favored, with its 
heavenly reward of love and beauty. The two 
sisters, who are after all but one and the same, 
symbolize for the child the greatest of all truths. 
That the beauty of love and self-sacrifice in all our 
lives is in its essence one with the divine love of the 
Creator of all things, comes out simply and naturally 
in the picture of Mother Carey at the Peacepool. 

All these thoughts in their simplest forms will grow 
out of this wonderful effort of a wonderful story- 
teller. Not all children can receive them; happy 
the favored few. But the story itself embodies them 
so perfectly, in a form of artistic charm so fine and 
true, that its image on the mind and heart will remain 



Suggestions to Teachers 381 

with the reader for many years; and some day a 
reminiscent mood will flash the glowing picture before 
him again, its inner meaning clear and unmistakable. 

To a teacher who loves natural history The Water- 
Babies offers great opportunities. Pictures or speci- 
mens of most of the creatures mentioned are usually 
obtainable and will be of help. It is almost too easy 
to branch off into nature lessons with this book — too 
easy, because the real value of the book rests rather 
in its ethical teaching. As literature, also, it is a 
fine example of an exalted idea clothed in the simple 
but princely garb of Anglo-Saxon English. Its fas- 
cination lies in the sweep and rush of the narrative 
which compels attention; and, perhaps quite as much, 
too, in the occasional interludes of rest found in 
passages of great poetic beauty. As an example of 
the former, witness the chase after Tom in the first 
chapter; and of the latter, in the same chapter, the 
description of the view from the top of the mountain 
and the exquisite poem, "Clear and Cool," or, in 
Chapter IV, what Tom saw and heard as he sat on 
the buoy. But it will be noted that it is most fre- 
quently the touch of emotion which gives beauty to 
many a plain phrase. 

The book is long enough to bear some elisions in 
class reading. Whenever it is thought best to shorten , 
the omitted portions should be read by the pupils in 
private, and questions asked to cover the ground. 
The teacher will find it profitable to read to the class 
"The Three Fishers," "The Sands o' Dee," and 
"Andromeda"; the latter is particularly fascinating 
read aloud, reproducing in English, as it does, the 
long sonorous roll of the Greek hexameter. Matthew 
Arnold's poem, "The Forsaken Merman," referred to 
on page 145, should be read at that point. 

The lessons of Kingsley's own life are not such as 
generally appeal to children . Those chiefly valuable to 



j82 Suggestions to Teachers 

them are the tremendous earnestness and industry 
of the man, united, as they always were, with perfect 
cheerfulness and an unbounded enthusiasm. It was 
this union of earnest, kindly endeavor with such hope- 
ful and buoyant enthusiasm as the world rarely sees 
that made his life an inspiration and revelation to 
many. 

It is suggested that the following portions of The 
Water-Babies be read outside of class: 

From line 428, "For the attics were Anglo-Saxon," 
to line 484, "and show good sport with his hounds." 

From line 161 7, "But a water-baby is contrary to 
nature," to line 1837, "You are not to believe one 
word of it, even if it is true." 

From line 3598, "For at that rate, he said," to line 
3686, "she only asked the same question over again," 

From line 3880, "So all the doctors in the country 
were called in," to line 4159, "even though one has to 
pay a heavy price for the blessing." 

From line 697 1 , "And first he went through Waste- 
paper-land," to line 7354, "The man shall have his 
mare again, and all go well." 

For biographical study the following books are 
recommended : 

Charles Kingsley: His Letters and Memories of 
his Life, edited by his wife. 

Kingsley and the Christian Social Movement, by 
Charles W. Stubbs. 

Famous Leaders among Men (Sketch of Charles 
Kingsley), by Sarah K. Bolton. 

Leaders Upward and Onward (Sketch of Charles 
Kingsley), by Alexander H. japp. 



11 1912 



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